Exit Slip: October 21

 Today's discussion about gender in mathematics and physics is something very near and dear to my heart. As a woman and an ethnic minority, being in engineering, let alone specializing in the mining industry, marginalization is something that I am always aware of. After my first week in Materials Engineering, it definitely dawned on me that I was one of 4 girls in my class of 40 - and of those 4 girls, I was one of 2 that regularly came to class. I actually consider myself very lucky, because I was raised in a home where my mom had the higher education, more advanced degree, and more high-level corporate job. She had a sense of assertiveness at home that I was raised in and I think was quite intensely transferred to my siblings and I. I even see it in the types of partners and relationships that we tend to pick. 

I think it's interesting for me to see this prejudice looking back on my more recent experiences, since it was not something that I think I've noticed completely. I also thinks this reiterates how much this bias is systemically engrained, since I can't even recall where I've had to go through this. My examples are not about some intense personal confrontation, but more about the general breakthrough of having women representation in my degree. From not having female bathrooms on every floor of our building, to having been on specific hiring committees tasked with finding women professors, to not having female role models in my field. It is definitely subtle but the lack of female presence definitely ended up being a factor for why I chose not to pursue a career in my area of engineering. I am lucky that I had professors who spoke highly of me and who did not ignore the fact that I was a woman, but instead celebrated the diversity I brought to my field! I know others were not as lucky, and had to deal with a lot of shaming and insults. 

One of my biggest motivators in showing up for my students is the fact that I can be a female role model in STEM. And it's not that I have a highly developed technical background or a unique comprehension, either. I wanted to become an engineer, so I did. I want my students to know that they do not need to be the smartest one in the room in order to deserve a place there, but if they want a place, their gender should not be one of the hurdles they face.