I Found a New Form of Politeness!

I have stumbled upon a gentlemanly phenomenon that I had not been aware of at my new building. I work at Commerce Place now, so I ride the elevator up 17 floors everyday. It is within these elevators that said phenomenon was observed.

All of the men in my building ‘hold’ the door open for all of the other people on the elevator, especially women. Even if a man is the last person to enter the elevator and is standing in front of everyone who needs to exist, he shifts to the side, places his arm or briefcase in front of the door sensors and allows everyone to go ahead of him. I’ve even seen it happen where two or three guys all make the attempt to hold open the door or be the last to exit and it makes for a rather entertaining little dance of ‘who goes first?’

This brings up a few questions to me, but my main question is why? Elevator sensors will sense the people exiting and not shut the door. The briefcase/arm is not really required. Where did this originate? Is this isolated to my building or is this societal? It seems like a very polite thing to do, but at the same time it has misogynistic undertones. I’m not saying that I would ever get upset at someone for holding a door for me, but it is an example of women being treated differently at the workplace. Could it be the guys like the ‘view’ that the situation provides? Maybe I should challenge the role and do it to the men in the elevator, to show them the same politeness they have afforded me.

Or perhaps I’m taking a polite gesture made by people who want to make the world feel a little more civilized and over-analyzing it. Either way, it’s still interesting to witness.