Hello, MJ--

Uh-oh--I'm guilty of the "Not all women" kind of talk. When co-workers would generalize about women being emotional or naggy or gossipy or not strong enough for something, I'd quickly butt in with some evidence that I wasn't that way. I was definitely defensive--it bothered me a lot that they'd lump me with 'all women' so I just naturally felt like I should point what they said was clearly not true if what they said wasn't true of one woman.

Reading what you're saying here, I'm now realizing that they were probably rolling their eyes at me, like, "C'mon, Lee, you know we're not saying 'all' women, literally, we're just griping because we're upset about something, cut us some slack."

So...next time I hear some guys complaining about 'all women', I'll try to remember what you wrote here and not be so quick to jump in with the "Not me!" line.