When I was a teenager, and perhaps a decade longer, no self respecting young guy would be caught dead driving an automatic. Even us girls often drove them.
I know a few female die-hard manual transmission drivers. Three stood out; one drove a Jeep, one was a speed demon in a sports car, and one drove an SUV. And they drove them well.
I never thought much of it but a coworker commented about being envious because she didn't learn, and respected that I did. She was from Europe and would go back to visit family regularly.
I worked with a woman who regularly did television and movie extra work and was in quite a few pictures because she could drive a manual transmission, including a three-on-the-tree. Especially in scenes of period pieces with older cars, they'd pay extras more if they could drive manual transmissions since it saved costs by requiring fewer dedicated drivers. She also got to be in a lot of scenes such as car chases (as one of the vehicles being passed), or scenes where a fleeing perp slides over a car hood while the car is stopped at a light, or a perp gets thrown on the hood and cuffed by the cops.
I learned to drive a stick because a manual transmission car was cheaper to buy than an automatic.