I worked as a head cook at courthouses and high schools. I left it behind when I started getting into my music real heavy.
I've never found it made the slightest difference being a woman - though there is a sort of feeling that as you get older you're not so interesting.
It proved to be pretty impossible to get funds for a feature film in Finland. It's still small, but the film industry was miniscule at that point in the early '80s.