Funny

Here's what I think is going on, a lot of the time: Some people who come from harsh environments or harsh families think that they have to constantly sort of push people around, to show that they can't be messed with. And they react very badly to being "pushed around" themselves, in their mind. Wven if it's not that at all, just someone who knows more than them telling them something. It comes from having to jostle for position in a harsh and unfair environment. They have almost this survival instinct where they can't ever be on the bottom of the pile, and they'll start fighting against anything they perceive as putting them there, even if it isn't. And I feel like there's a lot of overlap between that mentality and the "business" mentality in some white-collar settings.

It doesn't even have to be sexist, although it can be. It's more just a hyper-reaction to anything that comes across as threatening to their authority or their position. I think some people with that mentality will seize on gender if they need to, as the reason for why some particular person can't possibly be "above" them in the hierarchy and needs to get back in their place. But they might seize on some other reason just as readily if the "threat" is a man. The only type of people they won't do that to is people who can sort of "hold their own" in terms of combatting with them for dominance. Those people, they'll be comfortable with, because when they try to put them down unfairly they'll stand up for themselves firmly and so they regard them as "an equal" where everyone else by default is not.

In other words I think it comes from insecurity and causes a needless pain in the ass in a business setting because it makes them hard to work with. Although, I don't know, maybe if you asked them about me they'd tell you all about how I'm the one that's hard to work with.