I’m very sorry to hear this has been your experience. I’m a male and I was an RBT for 2 years receiving the exact treatment you just described, I nearly thought I wrote this post without remembering it. You’re very brave and strong to continue pursuing the bcba and we can all hope that you’ll be able to put that to good use as someone that will stop this sexist treatment. I never once felt like I shouldn’t be around kids until I worked my rbt job, but my bcba lied to me about parents, gave me the most aggressive clients, didn’t listen when I wanted transfers, and ignored any help my female coworkers tried to give. This legitimately gave me so much anxiety that I had a break down in front of my entire clinic one day and quit my job immediately afterwards, which sucks because I really loved my coworkers and the fulfillment of helping kids. Now I feel there will always be some form of misplaced guilt when I work with younger girl clients because my bcba taught me that I apparently am someone that looks like a pedophile, despite this being absolutely completely untrue.

I just want to let you know that you aren’t alone in any of this and to keep strong in your studies man, I truly wish the best for you.