Spectrum Cable & Internet is Anti-Woman

Spectrum Cable & Internet is Anti-Woman  ©

I had to call my internet provider (Spectrum) because the WiFi was down this morning.  The first person I spoke to, in their department of “customer service” informed me that it looked like everything was connected on their end, and gave me the bum’s rush.  Still without internet, I called AGAIN, and requested a service call.  As a survivor of sexual abuse, and as a woman living alone, I requested a female technician.  I was told someone would come out to the apartment between one and two pm today.

A male technician showed up a little before one pm.  I asked him why my request for a female technician was not honored.  He told me there are no female technicians, because “this job is too strenuous, we had a couple of females, but they quit because they couldn’t do the work.”  All he had to do to restore my internet connection was tighten a couple of wires with a pliers, which he did.  He was in my house for all of five minutes, but his attitude made it five minutes too long.

He left and I called Spectrum back.  I said I wanted to make a complaint, and was transferred to someone in the “video repair” department.  I told her how my request for a female technician wasn’t honored, and how the male tech told me there aren’t any female techs because they’re unable to perform the job.  I asked how many female techs are employed by Spectrum and assigned to work my area (the Bay Ridge/Dyker Heights area of South Brooklyn in New York), and not only could she not tell me how many female techs, if any, are assigned to my area, but she told me she herself wanted to work as a tech when she first applied to Spectrum, but was told that due to the “physicality” (her word, not mine) of the job, she was unsuited for it and redirected to the call center for employment.

I’m livid, because this isn’t the first time I’ve encountered misogyny and toxic masculinity when dealing with Spectrum.  When I moved into my apartment, the male tech who came to set up the cable & internet spent twenty minutes explaining how to use the remote to switch back and forth between cable and streaming services.  I’ve had cable/internet/streaming in the other places I’ve lived before, I’m aware how a TV remote works.

In January of this year, I was working from home and lost my internet connection.  The male tech who came out to the apartment insisted he fixed it, told me to try logging onto work...I did, and when I still had no internet connection, I pointed out that he had not fixed whatever he thought he fixed.  He told me I needed to “calm down”, “adjust my attitude” and “talk nice”.  I asked him if he was in the habit of telling male customers to “calm down” and “talk nice.”

Today was the last straw, though.  Being told, in my own home, that women are unqualified to do a certain job specifically because they’re women, is more than I can endure.  It’s 2022.  Women run Fortune 500 Companies, hold advanced degrees, hold political office (including the office of the Vice President of the US & the office of Governor in my home state of NY), and yet we’re considered unqualified to work as techs for Spectrum internet & cable, and disrespected in our own homes by male techs as paying customers of Spectrum internet & cable.

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