4 ms·

I'm always disappointed when I read stories like this. It saddens me that people are like this. My team of 15 has a whopping 2 female engineers and they're ama

I'm always disappointed when I read stories like this. It saddens me that people are like this. My team of 15 has a whopping 2 female engineers and they're amazing. Thankfully I've never witnessed a single instance of sexism here. There's a fair amount of ignorance and some awkward terminology though. (they often use "Hey guys" or "Hey lads"). I do remember in college we did have a female student. Of course the reaction was "Wow! A girl in the class!". She didn't last long before transferring courses... I hope our future female engineers persist and we can get a better split between men and women. I hate being in this men's world Please! Respect your fellow engineers, no matter what they look like or where they come from.

sudosteph 5y ago
I was often the only girl in my comp sci classes, though not always. I always thought it was interesting to see how my fellow female peers handled the extra attention. Some of them leaned into it and were always surrounded by mediocre male peers eager to "help" them. They would pretty much always defer to their posse of helpers and get praise for being a team player. My strategy was pretty much the polar opposite though. I found that if I could one-up my male peers early in the course, most of the annoying ones would be too intimidated to bother me. It worked out pretty well too. The ones who weren't intimidated tended to be better at the coursework anyhow. So when I needed to partner up, I would pick one of them - and I wouldn't have to worry about them not respecting me or anything. If it was a random pairing with one of the ones who was uncomfortable around me, that actually worked fine too. They usually let me take the leadership role, and I didn't mind that either. I didn't get points for being agreeable, but nobody doubted my competency - and that was all I really wanted. I can definitely see how women who aren't comfortable doing either of the things described above would transfer away.

sudosteph 5y ago

I was often the only girl in my comp sci classes, though not always. I always thought it was interesting to see how my fellow female peers handled the extra attention. Some of them leaned into it and were always surrounded by mediocre male peers eager to "help" them. They would pretty much always defer to their posse of helpers and get praise for being a team player. My strategy was pretty much the polar opposite though. I found that if I could one-up my male peers early in the course, most of the annoying ones would be too intimidated to bother me. It worked out pretty well too. The ones who weren't intimidated tended to be better at the coursework anyhow. So when I needed to partner up, I would pick one of them - and I wouldn't have to worry about them not respecting me or anything. If it was a random pairing with one of the ones who was uncomfortable around me, that actually worked fine too. They usually let me take the leadership role, and I didn't mind that either. I didn't get points for being agreeable, but nobody doubted my competency - and that was all I really wanted. I can definitely see how women who aren't comfortable doing either of the things described above would transfer away.