Darius93 said:
what makes me feel unwelcome?
I ask a question and I get looked at like an idiot. a male classmate asks something similar and suddenly everyone wants to know the same thing.
if I correct something in a discussion or point something out others seemed to overlook I get ignored.
Along the lines of MIH's comments, how do you know you are being ignored? Perhaps you just make such good points that they just clam up out of embarrassment that they didn't know it, or have nothing to say because you just stated the key point and everything they were going to say is irrelevant after that. And often, weaker students are intimidated by the smarter students, regardless of gender. So, what you are experiencing might be because you simply are better than the rest of the class at the subject you're learning.
MissSilvy- a change in my major would not equal a change in my interests. but if I feel this way getting my BS I doubt things will become more diverse later. maybe I'm wrong.
It does get better. Those immature classmates eventually grow up and respect knowledge (or don't get very far), regardless of who is holding that knowledge.
I'm only saying I do not feel accepted despite what I know. And the only differences I see are my gender and race.
That may very well be your own biases in your self-perceptions. It's really easy to blame sex and race, because they are outwardly obvious, but be careful that it's not something more subtle that's really leading to the distinctions, if not simply a self-esteem problem rather than something your classmates are doing intentionally.
I just wanted confirmation I am not as inferior as I feel. I wanted someone like me to look up to. Apparently I'm asking for too much.
How about aspiring to be the person the next generation of young mathematicians will look up to, who will serve as a role model for women of color as well as awe the other young men.
Math Is Hard said:
When you enter your professional life, you will encounter jerks of all races and genders, who will make you feel unaccepted for all kinds of reasons. As you mature, you learn to deal with this.
I agree! I have a plaque in my office, right behind my desk so people walking in see it when talking to me. It says, "For every action, there is an equal and opposite criticism." All you can do is decide to let it roll off your back and keep going.
vociferous said:
Well, he meant that men would know how to use the drill bit key to properly tighten the bit-holder to secure the apparatus.
When there are overt comments made like that, it would really be helpful if students reported it. Or I could teach him how to secure the bit without a chuck.
Darius, when you're feeling down sometime, look up the term "elastrator." I got my Ph.D. in Animal Sciences (also a field where sexism is still rampant, not so much in the academic circles, but very much when people head out to the field and have to deal with farmers and ranchers), and used to keep one of those on my desk while I was in grad school. If I ran headlong into an example of sexism, it was a nice "toy" to fiddle with while talking to the offensive man. I was also just recently voted onto one of the faculties that is composed predominantly of ag school faculty (I'm over at the med school now) for training grad students. As I looked over the list of other faculty, I realized that I'm the only female member. Part of that is that there just aren't a lot of women who work with livestock and who do research in my field. But, instead of letting it get me down, I consider it something to be proud of, that I can do something well enough that men who tend to be biased against women in the field stand up and take notice. It also helps that I work with a wonderful technician who is very close to retirement. When I show the students or post-docs ways to work with the animals that are gentle, and don't require a lot of strength, especially upper-arm strength that fewer females have (you do get pretty strong over time, in general), the technician really helps reinforce the point even to the young men we work with. He tells them about all his back problems, and shoulder problems, and hernia operations, etc., reminding them that even though they might be able to use their strength to get the animals to do what they want while they are young, it takes a toll on their bodies long term. He tells them that the women may not be as strong as they are, but the women work smarter than they do (he doesn't have to explain this as often to the youngest students...they are coming in seeing the gentler ways we are doing things and haven't learned any other way...and right now, we have more women than men working at the farm, which is a complete switch from when I started here).
Oddly enough, I encounter the opposite problem in my classes. I teach nursing students. The classes are mostly female and just a handful of men. There are a lot of reports in nursing newsletters and such about sexism against male nursing students. Apparently, they encounter a lot of bias of people thinking they must be nursing students because they weren't good enough to be pre-med, or maybe they are only in nursing school to apply to med school later, etc. The same biases that hinder women entering med school tend to hinder men in nursing school. I do my best to maintain a gender-neutral classroom environment.
I had a wonderful advantage in college, though. I attended a women's college, that was part of a co-ed university. So, that meant I took co-ed classes, but lived in all-women's dorms. Our dorm required an application, and it was limited to math, science and engineering majors. There were several math majors, only 2 physics majors, and a lot of bio and chem majors along with about a dozen engineering majors. Everyone living in that dorm was serious about academics, so even if someone was the only female math major in their class year, they were surrounded by women who were also more math-oriented than those living in other dorms. We had 10 grad students who lived in our dorm too (when I went to grad school, I became one of those grad students...it just seemed right to give back to the next generation what I gained while an undergrad there). There was always one math grad student among them. The grad students served as mentors, ran study groups, developed skills workshops (leadership, study skills, time management, public speaking, etc.), and hosted invited speakers to talk about research, career options, and so on. At a time when students still didn't have their own computers for college and had to use shared computer labs, we were spoiled to have a computer lab in our dorm along with a few computer science majors who helped keep it running smoothly. I actually still use some of the skills I learned then to help teach my students now. I'm really trying to encourage them to develop study groups, because I've seen first-hand how much they can improve learning if they are done right.
Oh, by the way, all of my calculus professors were Russian too. I never figured that had anything to do with me, other than that I used to struggle to understand their accents when they lectured. Interestingly, when I think of math majors, it's women that come to my mind. That's because the only math majors I knew in college, other than my professors, who of course didn't count in my mind because they were old
, were the women I lived with in the dorms. None of them fit the stereotype of geeky math majors either.
Anyway, hang tough and stay strong. Maybe you're stuck with a class of especially obnoxious people, or maybe you're just reading them wrong. Who knows...they might be all quiet because they all think you're "hot" and can't screw up the courage to ask you out! (Just visit the General Discussion forum to see how many young men seem completely flustered and intimidated around women.) Regardless of the reasons, it shouldn't stop you from pursuing your dreams, or becoming the role model for the next generation that you so much crave having now.
