Sexism: My Role In Today's Society

When facing an obstacle the only way to overcome is to fight tooth and nail against it, to not run from the enemy, to pick the fight in “fight or flight”. Most often, setbacks are not fair; they target people who were born into a certain status. Sexism in today’s society puts women at a disadvantage in many areas. The challenges women face are unjust and recurring. I did not choose to be born a female, just as I did not choose to be taken less seriously due to my gender.

As a child, the STEM field had alluded to be a world of great promise. Although I had little knowledge of it all, math, science, technology--and even later on engineering--had captured my interest for its ability to work itself out in my brain with ease. As I grew older I became discouraged of showing interest in this “man’s world”; the sexism in the industry was painfully obvious, even to a child who did not fully have the capacity to understand sexism on its own. There were seldom any women used as examples to idolize. Because I could not relate to any prominent STEM women, I did
I was forced to realize that if I were to pursue the field of engineering as planned I would be experiencing this adversity tenfold. Moreover, my ideas were finally being validated. My teacher saw the effort and intelligence in my ideas, so much so that he encouraged me to see the validity in them as well.

Had my every idea been followed I would have never learned anything that day. Having been seen as equal from the start, I would never be prepared for any similar, future challenge. I saw firsthand the beauty in a setback. Sure the moral in this story is a bit cliché, but so is life sometimes. I have learned to fight for my equality, especially in this “man’s world” that I was once so intimidated by. I’m going to continue to fight for a chance to be the woman I could have looked up