Traditionally speaking, the idea of the “man of the house” meant that it was the husband or father in a household who took care of most things. But as the world continues to change, women take more dominant/equal roles in their households , meaning that the man of the house isn’t necessarily the head .
But change happens slowly, and as many women experience, there are still a great deal of sexist procedures that actively belittle women .
RELATED STORIES
A TikToker shared her story (and rage) after receiving a call from her insurance provider.
TikToker Caroline Vencil ( @carolinevencil ) posted a video in early June, pointing out the absurdity of a call she received from her new insurance provider, titled “This is a true story. And I hate it here.”
“If you are the female primary breadwinner of your house… I need you to watch this because I got a question for you.”
“So I’ve been the primary breadwinner of my house for the past year and a half,” Caroline says. “I signed up for some new health insurance because we moved to a new state.”
“Obviously while filling out all the paperwork, I filled it out as the primary for the house.”
“So it’s under my name, my phone number, my income, my everything. So can somebody please explain to me why I got a phone call to my phone from my new health insurance that I’m paying for… asking for my husband, and they won’t speak to me.”
She also clarified that this wasn’t for a claim.
In a comment on the video, Caroline wrote, “I missed mentioning this: this was a CLERICAL call. He’d had no doctor’s visit or anything.”
And of course, other commenters were dying to know how she dealt with the call.
In a second TikTok uploaded the same day, Caroline talks about her response.
“Here’s the thing, though,” she continues. “Nowhere did I say that he was the primary contact, the person setting up the account, nothing. So they must have literally seen a man’s name and went ‘he must be the primary’ and put him first.”
She then talks about how the woman on the phone asked to speak to her husband.
Caroline tells her no, and the woman puts her on hold before coming back to say, “‘Can he just get on the phone and tell us that it’s okay to talk to you?'”
“I told her no. No it’s not, I’m the primary.”
In text overlay at the end of the video, Caroline adds that the woman wouldn’t give her any more info, so she hung up and ended up changing insurance.
Many commenters empathized, and even shared their own experiences.
One commenter wrote, “This happens constantly. I’m also the primary for everything and make the most money. They put his name first on EVERYTHING.”
Another said, “I’m single. I’ve been asked for my husband.”
Of course, some people didn’t understand why this was a problem.
One commenter wrote, “Just put your husband on for few mins. Problem with women attempting to be man of the house – Lack of logic.” Caroline replied, highlighting why this is such a problem.
“Lack of logic would be ignoring the fact that there are hundreds, maybe thousands, of comments at this point, from women sharing the same story.”
“Lack of logic would be overlooking the fact that so many different kinds of women are sharing this story.”
Like many women in this same situation, Caroline is beyond frustrated.
What do you think? Let us know in the comments!
