I DON'T enjoy being a "girl"

I went to meet with a construction supervisor yesterday.  While staff and I discussed the placement of the proposed gate and the ramifications of said placement, the supervisor listened and then said           " It will be a gate of 24 fee where ever we put it.  You girls decide where you want it and tell us when we get out here."   GIRLS??????  Two of us "girls" have Masters Degrees and I have been spearheading projects like this for twenty-seven years.  GIRLS???  I haven't been a "girl" for 40 years!  OOOHHHHH  I held my tongue, but seriously that guy needed an education.  I run into this patronizing attitude from time to time, but really!  I wonder how he would have reacted to being called a "boy"  ( he was an older-than -me white man.)   Probably would not have phased him.  It's just that as a woman, working in a field where I interact with lots of construction people ( read- mostly men) I occasionally run into what I call "the little lady syndrome".  The Big Strong Man is going to help the Little Lady make up her mind and make decisions for her.  It drives me to distraction.  I know what I want. I have been making decisions on my own since I was in my teens.  It reminds me of a appliance store I went into when I was 19.  I had done my research and went into a local store to price the model I wanted from that store.  I wanted ( now mind you this was the 70's)  a top and bottom, avocado refrigerator.  The salesman tried to steer me to a DENTED side by side, in BRONZE.  Uh... NO that's not what I wanted- at ALL.  I told him so.  He pressured me.  You really want this.  No I don't.  I don't LIKE side by side, it was the wrong color AND it was damaged????    No I asked again about the model that I had come to look at and he again tried to dissuade me and sell me the damaged one.  Fine, I said if you are not going to show me the one I want, I will go elsewhere and turned on my heel and marched out of the store.  "You'll be sorry" he called after me ( seriously? I'll be SORRY????? ) NO I WON'T   I shouted back at him.    And I never was.  That avocado fridge lasted twenty plus years, as I knew it would.
Some guys just need a reality check.  In this day and age to call a group of professional women "girls" in that patronizing tone is not going to do you any good.