We were once again recording at Omegacon for this week’s episode! Our guest was our friend Ellie Younger, who is an Engineer. We talked with her about being a woman in a field traditionally dominated by men and we heard a few of many depressing stories about the obstacles in her path. We also talked about the question of whether or not we are discouraging young women from studying the arts when we encourage them to study math and science.
I am a woman in a STEM field, mathematics. I, luckily, did not experience much sexism when I was studying. I did experience some racism. I was once asked “isn’t math an Asian major?” (I’m white.) Now when I tell people that I have a mathematics degree, they ask what I am going to do with it. I experience sexism/microaggressions when I tell them that I am going to be a teacher. I get a reaction that says “Oh of course, what else would a woman do with a math degree.”
Love the show!