Sometimes the differences can be frustrating. Two examples: I have, over the years, bought a lot of new cars. I have usually done my homework before entering the showroom. Typically, if you are dealing with a female sales agent and start asking specific questions about the car you are interested in - its features (engine, transmission, suspension, etc.) the female sales agent will, more likely than not, have to confer with a male sales person to get the answer. This can be very frustrating and leaves the impression that she is unprepared for her job and out of her depth. Can you respect her as much as the male sales person who has studied his product and knows the answer? If you don't - and I don't - I still treat her with the utmost respect. But then I am both TG and a lawyer (a field in which extremely smart female lawyers are everywhere and they will slice and dice you with consummate ease if you aren't prepared, so you gotta respect them and this bleeds over into other areas of life).
A second example is selling or buying a home. Females seem to predominate in home sales. My experience has been that they are highly professional and really know everything about how a home is to be prepared and presented for sale. In this case, they definitely have earned their respect, as opposed to the female new car sales agent.
Perhaps in the case of a woman who has to deal with contractors, a lack of deep knowledge about construction materials, supplies and methods has led to a lack of respect in a rough and highly competitive field dominated by hard-driving no-nonsense males.
