The flip side of this is being female, and having a brain... intimidates men for some reason. Most people , at work when I first meet them, assume I am the secretary. Gets old after a while...
Just had to register to say a few words.
As a male I happen to work for a Scandinavian hi tech engineering company Most things are the same in that company, e.g., mediocre pay, stupid bureaucracy, never enough time to do a job right, never the right tools, ... Some are different. One thing different is the high female rate. No one would assume a female is the secretary. Those that do never come back. And my current "office administrator" is a guy.
What is apparent is that females do the same tricks as males. When your job is to lead a group, or when you are a technical expert in some area, it is expected that you show some "presence". You are supposed to stand your ground, independent of female or male. If you enter a room to meet the group you lead, you "fill" the room, you don't just sneak in. When your area of expertise is discussed you show who's the leader of the pack by controlling the discussion.
Another thing different is the old "don't f*ck in the company" isn't observed. A good bunch of my colleagues are in a relation with colleagues. They don't hide it, don't have to and no one cares or makes a fuss. I have attended at least a dozen marriage ceremonies of colleagues marring colleagues. Couples work on the same projects if they want, couples take up assignments to another branch or country together.
The only thing the company really cares about is to make sure there are no relations between supervisors and subordinates. When this happens it isn't fixed the usual way by firing one or both. Instead the subordinate is just moved to another group. HR does that routinely, without making a fuss. They expect they get told by those in such a relation, as opposite to having to find out. I won't be surprised if there is a special form for this. The company likes forms of all sorts.
BTW, what the company doesn't have is a special program to promote females. The female engineers and female managers would stage a riot is something like that would be started.
I had a few of my tech's not believe me about how people treat women in my field. roughly 90% of the clients (both male and female), will turn and talk to a male tech(or even the janitor) if they walk out after I have been answering questions. I can continue answering, but they wont even look at me, and will phrase the questions towards the male tech.
This is an issue with your male tech's. Can you train them to direct the people back to you, instead of answering?
Now if I can just find a cute guy who I have something in common with, and who has some ambition, I would be set
Our host has some advice on this
http://www.artofinternetdating.com/No joke, this is our very own Dave writing a whole book about Internet dating ...