Are you a male in a female-dominated field or vise versa?

I'm a female engineer. To be honest, I had almost no problems in college or at work with people my age - its usually the older ones. I don't think its always intentional, but the take-charge aggressive attitude they have tends to leave people in the dust. Being the youngest here at work, and one of the two females in my section (out of maybe, 15 total) makes it doubly hard. I think a natural comraderie grows easily between men, especially of the same age, so they naturally approach each other. I have had a few outright problems with select individuals - harassment, getting left out of group projects - but overall I'm pretty damn proud of how the majority of them are.

HOWEVER, physical labor is completely different. I have worked some labor jobs, and I can tell you it is common for men to say outright that a woman shouldn't be doing that. Some are trying to be chivalrous, some are old fashioned, others are just arrogant. I've had everything from people talking about me like a novelty for "working so hard" (pushing a wheel barrow 1/3 filled w/ cement bc they wouldn't put any more in it) to outright saying I'm incapable of the physical labor bc I'm not a man (I was actually simply offering to hand them up a piece of aluminum scaffolding).

Dominant.

What's this? Woman long ago when you were a gilr you discovered that males are a bit dense, easily manipulated and blunt, right? Obviously men and women are much more than those things yet we tend to gravitate towards the gang mentality and respond to primal urges more often than females. Inner peace, self-control and the pursuit of excellence guides the achiever.

Nearer the end of high school when I started to talk to people a lot more, I got ridiculed for my life ling dream of joining the army. I still get it now 3 years later from the other guys in my regiment for being the only girl.