‘Don’t answer his questions’: Woman works in a ‘male-dominated’ job. She can’t believe co-worker’s reaction to her pregnancy

A woman went viral on TikTok after sharing one of her male co-workers’ shocking reactions to her pregnancy announcement. 

Martha Rosey (@martharoseyy), a 24-year-old who lives in Iowa, recorded the video from her bedroom. In her nearly two-minute-long clip, the engineer recounted a conversation she had with a male colleague, who later made an ill-timed comment about Rosey’s pregnancy. 

“Drama in a male dominated field,” Rosey wrote via the text overlay. As of Saturday morning, her clip has amassed over 2 million views.

Rosey said she announced her pregnancy during a group meeting. She also clarified that she works almost exclusively with men. While one other woman works there, too, Rosey said that she’s part-time. 

Prior to announcing her pregnancy, though, Rosey recalled an awkward exchange she had with the male co-worker regarding finances and family planning. 

“I work in a lab by myself,” Rosey said. “He comes into my lab one day and he goes, ‘Did your parents pay for you to go to college?’”

After telling him that they didn’t, Rosey said her co-worker proceeded to ask personal questions regarding how she afforded school. (She said that she did so through a mix of scholarships and loans.) 

The co-worker then suggested, unprompted, that Rosey roll over any extra money accrued from her parents into a Roth IRA. That led Rosey to clarify, again, that her parents didn’t pay for her schooling. 

“Then he goes on to say, ‘Well, if you ever want to have kids, you could just start one for them,’” Rosey recalled. But, annoyed with the ongoing conversation, Rosey said she told him that she had no plans of getting pregnant and didn’t want kids. 

Of course, she was lying, but she said in her video that she was desperate to “end the conversation.” 

Then, after announcing her pregnancy to her entire team, she said her co-worker made a shocking comment to her. 

“So today I announce in our group meeting that I’m pregnant, and he walks by me… and he goes, ‘Hmm really sounds like you didn’t want to have kids,’” Rosey said. 

In the accompanying video caption, Rosey clarified, too, that the same co-worker encouraged her to “go back to school to get a real job.” 

In 2020, the New York Times published a listicle for how pregnant people can tell their bosses that they’re expecting. Some of their tips included things such as letting them know as soon as possible and to not shy away from asking for certain accommodations.  

As the Times noted, announcing a pregnancy can be met with both positive and negative reactions. Still, viewers expressed disbelief that a male colleague felt entitled enough to ask Rosey such personal questions. 

Some people even encouraged her to report him to a higher-up. 

“Don’t answer his questions,” one person said. “Talk to HR about his inappropriate behavior.”

“The audacity he had to ask such questions in the first place is beyond me,” another wrote.

“I think u should tell someone about that,” a third person advised. 

The Daily Dot has reached out to Rosey via TikTok comment.