Work is being done by a professional, that is how you should know it is my partner to speak to, not me. If it was me I would be happy with the 5 layers of duct tape applied while I was drunk and have been perfectly serviceable for months now.

As the husband in such situations, I find this very frustrating from a practical perspective.

Guy comes over to install some tech. Me and my wife are both home. I’m working, she’s doing chores. She knows her stuff and did the research, I very clearly don’t know shit about fuck. Guy looks for me every time he has a question. The answer is always “I don’t know, but my wife does”. After I tell him this, he still doesn’t ask her, just makes a decision on his own, so I have to drop everything and get her to make sure he doesn’t fuck things up. At one point, I had to ask my wife to physically stand next to the dude so that he wouldn’t interrupt an important meeting. She later told me he still tried to look for me.

When we need repairs or some kind of work done, I have to be the one making the call because I’m less likely to be ripped off or treated rudely. And since I’m dumb, I have to prepare for these calls because they sometimes cross-examine you with terms I never even heard of. In the middle of a busy workday, while my wife has the time and the know-how. We share household tasks with my wife as equally as possible, I’m just stuck with this.

Female contractors popped up in the area recently. I instantly chose them every time. No such issues.

My sister went through 3 potential builders before she found one that would even address her rather than her husband.

She, the extremely qualified, professional architect who works restoring ancient buildings and who’s name is on the structural plans and diagrams as the engineer picked the first people who could identify that her husband couldn’t tell a hammer from a screwdriver.

I never noticed how sexism is so ingrained in the people of my country until I married a foreigner that doesn’t speak the language.

Obviously every interaction needs to go through me so I can translate to him, but people refuse to look at me when interacting, always talking to him first, even after they see he doesn’t understand them.

This happens in places as simple as grocery stores, cashiers will always try to talk to him first. It’s the same with almost every other service we encounter. It was a weird thing to find out as an adult.

When I sold cars I was explicitly told to never ignore the wife and if I did it was an immediate deal killer.

I shake men’s hands and not women’s because women never ask Me for handshakes, and I don’t like giving them. I only do it with men because they’re so needy and touch starved that they think touching sweaty feelers is a good time.

Had that with a carpenter who was bidding for the new windows in a friends apartment. I was there as a visitor for a completely unrelated reason when he showed up and only looked at me and never talked to her while answering her questions.

Boy, did she drop him from the list of possible contractors.

I know for some, its considered improper to have interactions with opposite sex members after marriage, so its entirely possible they knew who is the decision maker and still feel obligated to use the husband as a go-between.