13 ‘Men of Reddit’ Share What They Think Is Harder For Women

Although we’ve come a long, long way in gender equality, there are still plenty of glaringly obvious ways in which women have gotten the short end of the stick just for being women. From constant sexualization to  being preyed upon from shockingly young ages to being expected to uphold a certain image and so many more things… we can see it everywhere. But is it all that easy for men to see? One Redditor, u/WinstonChurchillin, posed this question:

Men of Reddit: What can you acknowledge is harder for women?

And Reddit answered:

  1. Perfect Parenting Pressure

    This this this! This goes right along with my pet peeve when people praise a father for “babysitting” their own dang kids.

    Pressure to be a perfect parent. My partner would get approached by strangers at grocery stores and parking lots and criticized for random stuff she was “letting” our then-2 y.o. get away with it. When I was public with our child, it was pretty much “Oh look at the good dad!” for just being.The wicked stepmom trope pretty much reinforces how the expectations are set at a huge bar for women, while deadbeat dads make it a shrugging “oh well, that sucks but what are you gonna do” bar for men. -Sisko4President

  2. UTI? More like UT-WHY?!?!?!

    Sure, sure, cis men can absolutely get UTIs, but it is far more common for women/those with shorter urethras.

    UTIs. My wife will occasionally get a UTI after sex and has to suffer the discomfort and the irritation of trying to get a GP appointment (UK) whilst convincing the witch of a GP receptionist that you want an appointment today. -whu1895

  3. The “Bulk” of Training

    I didn’t expect to see some that acknowledge the stuff that is physically harder for women through no fault of their own. Okay, I see you, u/Mad_Maddin.

    When I began in the military everyone including all the girls were in far better physical condition than I was.2 Months in I was bringing in a better performance than all but one girl. The difference in muscle growth, etc. is simply at a level where women are never able to keep up with men who put even half the effort in of them. -Mad_Maddin

  4. Menopause > Midlife Crisis

    This one is a double-whammy! Not only is menopause more physical than a basic ol’ midlife crisis, but also you feel terrible and you’re not allowed to act like you feel terrible. (Otherwise, YOU’RE terrible.) Smh.

    My grandma always jokes that it’s ‘only’ men who go through the stereotypical Mid-life Crisis of randomly changing up their lives, buying cool things, acting differently (etc), because all of the women are too busy over-heating, being hormonal, and having to deal with annoying symptoms at that age to have the time or inclination to have a Crisis.“Women already have a natural, biological Mid-life Crisis! We don’t have time to buy sports cars” -WembleyToast

  5. “Pee”s Be Seated

    As an avid camper, this one really cracked me up. I’m glad to see there’s some sympathy for Those Who Need to Sit.

    Or just peeing in general b/c we don’t gotta sit down whenever we need to pee -micoconut02

  6. Risky Business

    Of course we all have to deal with potential STIs and catching feelings when we decide to have sex, but only some of us have to worry about 1.) completely obliterating our reputation and 2.) ending up pregnant.

    The prospective weight of sexual encounters; what is fun for one could be a life-altering disaster for the other. -FortunateSonofLibrty

  7. Talk (Down) to Me

    This is a longer explanation, but totally worth it to show the extent of this issue in the business professional world.

    The constant talking down to and the constant looking down upon. I’ve seen this in all areas of my life but it became prominent when I was a technical trainer at a large web hosting company. I had a handful of incredibly brilliant women techs that were berated, insulted and man-splained to on an hourly basis by customers either via phone or chat.I mentioned this to the director of our department who didn’t seem to believe me. Unbeknownst to him, I allowed several of the women techs to change their names in our chat program to more male sounding names. Nothing else about their approach changed but the results were astonishing. Within the span of the first week, all of their NPS scores skyrocketed. A month into it, several were nominated for employee of the month awards. My manager asked me how we were able to turn things around and I confessed that I let them change their names. I graphed several KPI’s to show that nothing else about what they were doing had changed. -KFG_BJJ

  8. It’s My Body/I Can’t Tie if I Want To

    I know, I’m sorry. It was too good not to say.

    The level of BS is astronomical. My wife wanted to get her tubes tied. Three freaking appointments and then they wanted her to take a MFking CLASS before they would even schedule it! She rolled down to planned parenthood and got an IUD (painful) that comes with a bonus side of progesterone-induced menopause. The unwillingness of physicians to let women control their reproductive health is infuriating. -SpaceLunatic

  9. Pockets of Inequality

    Here’s a lighter, but EQUALLY ANNOYING one. (Please note that I recently discovered that my wedding dress has pockets in it and THAT is progress, baybyyyy)

    I’ve only recently been made aware that women’s trousers (pants) don’t usually come with pockets that are actually deep enough to keep anything in there.Fashion is weird. -HouseRajaryen

  10. Another Country Heard From…

    I must admit that my ideas of inequality are rooted in the Western (and mostly American) cultures. This was a new one for me.

    Indian man here too, can attest. Arranged marriage is a part of culture. Its hit or miss. Sometimes its literally a nightmare if she ends up with a douchebag. Super defined gender roles everywhere. Divorced women are essentially 2nd rate citizens here. And there is ZERO sex education. Female orgasms are a myth. -velvet_thunder999

  11. Takin’ Up Space

    The number of times I’ve squished my legs on top of eachother, pulled my shoulders in, and balanced on the smallest possible piece of subway bench just so some man could practically set up house next to me… Oof.

    “Occupying space for no apparent reason became much easier.” That’s what I (M61) remember reading from a woman journalist who disguised herself as a man for day. She noted that the ability to simply stand or sit any place you like, is a privilege men take for granted. That really stayed with me. And yes I have to agree that’s true. -ALinLOSANGELES

  12. Expect the Unthinkable

    Importantly, this isn’t something that only happens to women and people perceived as women. However, for men it tends to be treated as a fluke, whereas women just… expect it as a part of life. Wild.

    …Ask any woman if they’ve had an experience with sexual assault or harassment, and they almost always do. The ones who don’t always know someone who has. -Kik_da_sneak

  13. Let’s (Not) Talk About Sex, Baby!

    I feel this one in my SOUL.

    Trying to have a friendly conversation with someone with out them thinking they wanna smash. -Daschnozz

I gotta say, it feels pretty darn good to have some of the issues women face talked about with such understanding and sympathy. Did any of these struggles resonate with you? Is there anything that you think is generally harder for women that should be talked about more? Let us know in the comments!