Many women – particularly young women, women of colour, and those working in male-dominated fields – have experienced being mistaken for a more junior member of staff at work.

Don’t believe us? Jennifer Hudson, a world-renowned actress and singer, recently revealed that a removal man once assumed she was her male driver’s assistant. Similar assumptions are made about non-famous working women, working in fields from science to journalism and economics, every single day.

The prevalence of this common but infuriating issue was recently highlighted in a thread on Twitter. Nicola Bartlett, political correspondent for the Daily Mirror, took to social media to voice her exasperation about what she described as the most sexist comment she’d received that week (“so far”).

“Phone up a male MP and say I’m calling from the Daily Mirror,” Bartlett wrote. “He asks me who I’m calling on behalf of. Erm myself a political journalist.”

Can we stop making sexist assumptions about women’s status at work?