Although efforts are underway to change this, we’re still at a point where we see disproportionately more men in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics fields than women.
And while this problem varies depending on which field we’re talking about and can be rarely be boiled down to just one reason, it’s easy to underestimate the effect that gatekeeping and similar attitudes from within scientific communities can have on this phenomenon.
RELATED STORIES
Indeed, it’s hardly uncommon for women to feel objectified, dismissed, and otherwise treated as a lesser person when they do pursue studies and careers in the sciences.
And that’s why one woman saw it as outright preposterous when an unspecified but apparently toxic Reddit community somehow convinced themselves women had an unfair advantage in these fields.
Replying to a comment that said, “Women are so oblivious to their own privilege,” an anonymous Reddit user came forward with a reality check.
In a comment that’s since been reposted to the site’s r/MurderedByWords community , she said, “Yes, bc me not responding to the guy in my class 10 years older than me saying, ‘you have a rockin hot bod’ (who says that?? what year is it??) when I just asked to compare code is me being ungrateful. Got it.”
She then went on to sarcastically say that the people sending her harassing DMs are saints that she should be thanking.
But her most illuminating reply wouldn’t quite come until the others in that community all but dismissed what she was getting at in her first comment.
As one of these commenters put it, “You’re still getting more attention from your colleagues and professors for being a woman in STEM. You just don’t realize that because of privilege. Of course that still come with issues, nobody’s life is perfect.”
This person than compared her situation to a rich person being robbed in a poor area, but her next reply made it clear as anyone could that this attention only came in one narrow, completely unwanted context.
After reiterating that sexual harassment hardly made her feel privileged, she shared that she felt the same when she was always made to contribute the least during group projects.
As she continued, “Clearly I’m privileged that they don’t even want my input, but offer it to me all the time bc clearly I’m a stupid woman who can’t code and need their vast male intellect.”
Through a similar sarcasm, she made it clear that it hardly feels like an advantage when she’s the only woman in her classroom. Nor is it anything but frustrating when guys don’t want to work with her and just ask for photos of her breasts when she requests a code comparison.
And she didn’t see the future as getting much brighter once she graduates, either.
In her words, “I love how one day I’ll be stuck in a lower paying career than my peers bc I’ll be seen as lesser.”
Ultimately, she hoped to show the people in that conversation that there’s a lot more to life than being attractive to the people who otherwise look down on you.
As she said, “I just want to feel valued. I want to feel as accepted as my male peers. I want to stop feeling so utterly alone every time I step onto campus.”
h/t: Reddit | beerbellybegone
