Originally Posted by
binman
Perhaps if we hadn’t lost the social graces in our (rightly) pursuit of gender equality, the world might be a better place! You can be both modern and considerate.
You won’t find a man being served first in top class restaurant( or frankly in my local pub) or in the Queens grill of a Cunard ship.
it’s just good manners and carries absolutely no other meaning!
The hotel chain I work alongside did a considerable internal survey on this as the subject kept arising and there had been a few complaints from women The slight majority of men felt that women should be served first, a substantial majority of women didn't want to be served first just because they were women. The end result was to use discretion but never to specifically say "I'll serve the lady first", but I was slightly surprised (I'm male, I hadn't given it a great deal of thought) just how many women felt patronised by the whole thing.