I believe that what Jax said is true, you will find this in every place in one form or another. I am in my 40's and I am still called "kido" by some of my customers. Some about my age and others older. I have my own business and it is pretty much a male dominated business, but seeing more and more skirts coming in. The way that I have dealt with the disrespect is if you treat me bad don't expect much from me. And yes, I am in a service business, but I don't have to take being mistreated. I also don't back down very easy. As far as dress, I think that some if not most of the dress and professional is gone and the way people view it from days past. I dress to relate to my customers. I don't dress above them and I don't dress below them. I fit in. I do think that some of what we all see is how these people were taught through their up bringing. In my family, if I wanted my front teeth in place, I did not disrespect anyone. Disrespect was one of the more serious offenses. To this day, I still live by what I was taught.
As for the workplace, I get them also, some days better than others. The ones that know me and trust me, bring me their most expensive high end race car parts and I do what I do and they know that I will do it right for them. They do not question my price or how I will go about packing and shipping the heads, rocker arms or what have you. However, the worst of the offenders, we go rounds when they come in. Sometimes, they come around and learn to respect what I have to say some don't. Some even to this day, come in and say something like, you should ask the boss man, meaning my husband. Then I have to bust their bubble and inform them I am the boss man. I have even had one old man come in and while I was helping him with his box and packing it for him ( I work on the floor, as I am of the shorter type) another guy walks in and the old guy I was helping, turns to the younger guy and says, "I have her down on her knees." As he is laughing, he thought it was funny. I ignored this comment and the younger guy did also. However, I would not ignore it again, next time I would just hand him his box and show him the front door.
As far as diving goes, and you can see I have not had much experience with this. Got OW cert. in late Sept and have gotten in 14 dives since. Season is over with for me here, too cold. But when I go out to the quarry, and every time other than during class time, was just me and my daughter, we did not see this. Actually we have been shown a lot of respect. Being invited to others tarps to help us fit in. People helping us while trying to get ready. At one point, we could not get her Henderson insta dry glove on, we were in the water and for the life of us could not get the damn thing one. We were laughing hard over this, and out of no where, some guy laughing because he was watching us came to help. Same thing when we did the DUI dog days, a couple of guys helped her get fins on with the rock boots. My daughter and I tend to laugh a lot and laugh a lot at ourselves. But we have been in diving stores where we have seen what you are referring to. Those people just think too much of themselves and need a reality check.