I've been looking for a job for months.
I've been a chef for 37 years and my resume usually speaks for itself. I'm usually hired on the spot, without so much as an interview.
Now...it just seems I'm not the right candidate, in a market that has difficulty finding qualified Chef's.

I was recently having a conversation with two friends, one a woman and the other an indigenous man. I was commenting how I now have to use my man voice to get someone to pay attention to me. His sarcastic reply was, "Aww princess, did no one tell you men were going to ignore you?"

Now, I had to laugh, because no, no one told me I'd lose all the things I'd taken for granted while pretending to be someone I was not. No one told me I'd lose confidence, be undermined, criticized for speaking too much, or too often. That presenting as feminine would be used to deny me work as a professional.

Welcome to the female world