ism in languages with grammatical gender on inanimate objects?

I know that English only categorizes only natural gender. But in languages with grammatical gender, do people become ist on objects? For example, for people who speak French in France and Quebec, do some people say that all books books belong to men while all chairs are belong to women because the language says so? The words in French for book is a masculine noun while chair is a feminine noun. I know this sounds odd but do French and other people who speak languages containing grammatical gender act ist on inanimate objects? I have a friend from France who says that this type of ism is kind of common regarding to language but not a big deal to worry about.