Girl + Computer = ?

I was going to save this particular snippit of my life for a different time, but I just had to talk about it now.

Usually, despite all my wishes for more, the people I spend time with in my major are quite nice. The few guys that I do know are friendly to me, and most everyone is chummy in class. I point out many of the social faux-pas of my professors, but not one of them is malicious or rude. Although it can be uncomfortable sometimes not having any fellow lady-friends in my major, most of the guys I know are true pals, as you can see:

I have not experienced much sexism towards me except for the small quip now and then concerning the color pink or Hello Kitty or something equally asinine. I consider myself quite lucky. Today I experienced the most extreme sexism I have faced from a fellow student - and although it is still extremely mild in comparison to the injustice others around me face, I was still caught completely off-guard.

I was talking with a fellow student that I’ve had in several classes and even done some group studying with. He mentioned how he was not looking forward to the rest of the semester, because of the dry readings and analytic papers we’d be doing.

I said to him I was excited. As I’ve written before, I had mixed feelings about starting a semester with only CS and Math subjects, as I’d grown to enjoy the reading and writing from my WGS and English coursework. The fact that my classes include research readings and discussions and theoretical concepts made me glad.

He sighs dramatically and says “I’m sorry, but that’s because you have a vagina. Girls are good at writing stuff, and guys are better with math, science, and stuff.”

I’m sorry, what?
Since when had my sexual organs had anything to do with my interests or aptitudes? That is such an old-fashioned outlook, and now is purely an uneducated view on the reasons behind females scoring lower on standardized tests in maths. Studies show that young children all score approximately the same on math tests, and differences are not because of gender. One big reason why girls continue to score poorly on math and science exams is because they’re told they’re innately bad at it. Its a self-fulfilling prophecy called stereotype threat. 
Yes, its a real thing. And you, sir, just perpetuated it. 

Also, by the way, I’ve been able to accomplish every math and computer science assignment at least as well as you. How else did I get through all these classes and pass like you did? Does that make me a male or something?
I don’t think that what’s in my pants should have anything to do with whats in my head or in my homework assignments.
And guess what? Whats in your pants doesn’t matter either - just because you have a penis doesn’t mean that you get a get-out-of-jail-free card on learning communication and writing skills. You can’t just leave that to the girlies to be secretaries for you. Its not the 60’s anymore.

It pretty much ruined my afternoon.  I felt awful, and my opinion on this person definitely plummeted. If I have to deal with his nagging on me about having cooties or how only girls are allowed to have Katy Perry songs stuck in their heads, that’s one thing. No one else seems to have to deal with this poking and prodding about being a wimpy girl, but I assume its all in good fun.
If I have a person tell me to my face that they believe I can’t possible be as good at my chosen career path as he could be because I am a female then there is a serious issue. 

However, then my mood was cheered by the first Associate for Computing Machinery (ACM) student chapter meeting and all the camaraderie there. I sat with a few of my friends in the major, we chit-chatted, and I talked with the president of the club afterwards about these weekly programming contests they’ll be hosting.
As I was talking with these guys, I felt like we were talking as peers, and it had no impact who was what gender.
Just what I needed!

I guess it just became more real to me that there is still sexism, and that I am bound to face it in my life and career. It is encouraging to know that despite the occasional bozo, most of the people I know like me for who I am and trust in my skills as I prove them rather than in expecting little from me for being a girl.

For more information on ACM, be sure to visit the ACM website: 

For more information on stereotype threat, here are a few articles on the subject:

• ReducingStereotypeThreat.org
• Thin Ice: Stereotype Threat and Black College Students, by Claude Steele, in the Atlantic Monthly
• Stereotype threat harms female, minority performance, by Adam Gorlick, in the Standford University News
• No evidence of innate gender differences in math and sciences, scholars assert, by Theresa Johnston, in Standford University News