Are you a woman who gets a lot of unwanted advice, especially from members of the opposite sex?

It’s an all too familiar scene. A young, often pulchritudinous woman is seated across from a dapper Dan in a suit at a metropolitan Starbucks. They are friends, you know, who met in the office. He calls her from time to time and she texts him every so often.

They get coffee to talk.

However, the nature of their discussion generally involves him advising her about her career, while critically staring at her from across the crumb-covered tabletop at the Starbucks of his choice.

Is there an ulterior motive on his part? In many cases, he’s married with children. This begs the following question: why do men feel the need to give women advice, especially about professional matters?

Women are at a disadvantage professionally no matter what they do, what they know or with whom they hobnob. Women still make about 70 cents to every dollar that a man makes regardless of IQ or experience level. So why do men think that their advice to women will improve their lives? It’s almost an admission that there is no discrimination against women in the workplace, which has now become so apparent that it is a major political issue.

Perhaps the male ego requires that they provide advice for the disadvantaged. After all, many men think that they are God’s gift to all women, so why not spread the love in the form of advice? It’s for the good of the world that they tell you how to get promoted or with whom to marry, even if he has absolutely no interest in you outside of a Platonic relationship.

Does anyone remember the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009?

Moreover, men who consider themselves friends to women love to give them advice about relationships, most especially when they themselves are in a very comfortable romantic partnership.

This has always fascinated me. It seems as if these relationships are one way too. The nature of the relationship is such that if the woman is not the recipient of advice, then the relationship ends.

• So here’s my open letter of advice to men:

1. Stop giving women advice.
   1. Unless a woman hires you as a career coach or a relationship counselor, she does not need your advice! She didn't even ask for it.
2. You are not doing a woman any favors by being her friend.
   1. If she is a single professional, she is not in need of your friendship. Remember that some women are single by choice and others like to make their own money.
   2. If she works with you and is not performing well in the office, she doesn’t want to go to Starbucks to talk to you about it!
3. Start asking women for advice.
   1. Sometimes women are more intelligent or more successful professionally. Why do you never attend lunch with one of those women, because she doesn’t need your advice?
   2. You are not God’s gift to women.
4. Admit it, sometimes you like the company of women!
   1. You don’t need to advise or assist women to enjoy their presence, just be on the same level and retain your ego.

Ladies, the next time you find yourself in a relationship with a man who will only give you unwanted advice, start giving him some advice and see if he sticks around.

Oftentimes men who do this are misogynists in disguise.