A person I know has to wear pants at work for her physical job and discovered that men's pants fit her. She's never gone back. When we want to wind her up and have her go on an angry tirade we egg her on about her choice of leg wear.
You anecdote reminds me of a trip to buy steel toe boots and work pants. The boots needed to be black but with the choice being between light brown and black/fuckingpink I went with brown. The boss eventually understood. Now with the work pants, this place had a huge area of the store dedicated to them and the displays went up to the ceiling. When an associate came over I asked where the women’s were or something in my size and they brought me to 2 little piles of work pants with leg holes the size of my lower body. There was maybe less than 10 in total in the entire women’s section. So instead I wore jeans, with stupid little pockets all my work stuff hung out of.
I wear men's cargo shorts on a regular basis in the summer but I am really short and am having trouble finding suitably short pants in men's or women's. Seriously considering learning to sew so I can make my own damn pants that are the correct length and have reasonable pockets. I hate having to carry a purse.