I don't want to be too "we live in a society" but I noticed that - since I'm a man / was a boy - people in care giving roles usually assumed I want to prove myself. Because All Boys™ want to prove themselves all of the time. So it's good to be as adversarial as possible, actually. To grow their character.

Regarding her generation and type of character, I wouldn't be too surprised to learn that she thought she was actually doing me a favor. Also she co-taught our class with another teacher who quite openly disliked boys in general and me in particular. Which was probably also a factor.