September 27, 2020 by Alyson Smith
Sexism in the workplace is not an uncommon issue. In fact, a 2017 study conducted by the Pew Research Center found that approximately 42 percent of working women have endured gender-based discrimination in their place of work. This issue is especially prevalent among women who work in the fields of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). Also according to the Pew Research Center, 50 percent of women who work in STEM-related fields have faced discrimination in the workplace because of their gender.
For women in STEM, gender-based discrimination in the workplace is often preceded by inequity in the classroom.
STEM majors are heavily male-dominated. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, the number of women who graduate from U.S. universities with STEM degrees is disproportionately small compared to the overall number of female graduates. Only 58 percent of those who earned a bachelor’s degree between 2015 and 2016 were female. However, only 36 percent of those who earned their bachelor’s degrees in STEM fields were female.
This imbalance is further reflected in the Cal Poly College of Engineering (CENG), in which female enrollment is consistently low. In 2019, only 26.6 percent of undergraduate students in CENG identified as women. This has resulted in male-dominated CENG classes, leaving female students feeling underrepresented and unheard. Biomedical engineering sophomore Kritika Sigdel is often one of only a handful of women in her STEM classes.
“It is incredibly intimidating to be in a class just filled with guys,” Sigdel said.
“I always felt like I had to be right. I was going out of my way to understand [the class material] to help minimize the bias that the girls in the class were not as intelligent – because people do have that bias.”
Mechanical engineering sophomore Claire Franz has had a similar experience as a woman in CENG. According to Franz, when her classmates are predominantly male, she and the other women in her class feel excessive pressure to succeed.
“We feel as though we can’t fail because not only is it us failing, but it’s every woman everywhere failing,” Franz said. “You feel like you’re representing your gender.”
“I felt like if I was wrong, [my classmates] would think every single girl that they’ve ever known is an idiot,” Sigdel echoed.
Franz also explained that many women in CENG simply feel that their voices are not being heard, but are instead stifled by their male classmates.
“You really have to advocate for yourself and speak up because other people might not give you the opportunity,” Franz said.
The Society of Women Engineers (SWE) hopes to combat this issue and help young women in STEM find their voice. SWE is an internationally recognized organization created to promote and encourage the success of women in engineering. SWE has a significant presence at Cal Poly, with roughly 1,000 members and fosters an environment that is much more welcoming for women in STEM than the Cal Poly CENG.
A prime example of this is Team Tech, a facet of SWE that allows students to work on sponsored technical projects. Because Team Tech is hosted by SWE, the event is primarily female-dominated — a notable change from CENG classrooms.
“Team Tech is a really good example of men and women working together,” said Sanjana Gundala, computer science senior and SWE’s Cal Poly chapter president. “It’s such a collaborative environment. It’s very different from the classroom.”
SWE also participates in community outreach programs, many of which are targeted toward children in elementary and middle school. The club hopes to inspire girls to pursue futures in STEM and combat misconceptions by introducing both young girls and boys to basic engineering concepts.
“It’s about encouraging people from a young age,” Gundala said. “When you’re younger, you don’t see any female engineers, so you don’t think that it’s an option.”
SWE’s faculty advisor, Helene Finger, believes these outreach efforts have helped increase female representation in both the Cal Poly CENG and STEM overall.
“I think [SWE] is essential to increasing the number of women that we have in the various engineering disciplines we have at Cal Poly,” Finger said. “They do that in two fronts: one is that they do an extensive amount of outreach and the other thing is that the community that SWE creates at Cal Poly provides support for our members.”
SWE aims to expand its community with each new school year and encourages all incoming female freshmen in CENG to join.
“We really try as much as possible to make that effort,” Gundala said.
Significant disparities still exist between men and women in STEM despite the progress SWE has made.
“I think, a lot of times, women have to prove themselves more than their male counterparts, whether it’s to prove they’re just as smart or to just be taken seriously,” Gundala stated.”
Numerous studies conducted by The Pew Research Center show that women in STEM are more likely to feel they need to prove themselves in order to be respected by their coworkers. These studies have also exposed that most women in STEM believe that their ability to succeed at work is impeded by their gender.
The Cal Poly CENG is no exception. In Gundala’s experience, men in CENG “don’t give women the credit they deserve” and “don’t think of them as equals.” The lack of respect they have for their female classmates is especially obvious when working in small groups. Gundala stated there are notable distinctions when working with a group of women versus a group of men.
“We feel more comfortable working with each other because we hear each other’s opinions,” she said of working in groups with female peers.
Gundala feels her voice goes unheard, however, when working with male classmates.
“I feel like I’m not given enough work, or they tell me what to do instead of letting me pitch my own ideas,” Gundala said. “It sounds bad, but sometimes I just go with it because I’d rather just get this project over with than argue about it.”
Even when women in CENG are not working directly with their male peers, they are still subjected to stereotyping and gender-based discrimination. Franz has also noticed these inequities in her experience with CENG.
“There’re so many biases that women have to be conscious of, and they have to purposefully present themselves to be taken seriously,” she stated.
Gundala confirmed that she “gets weird looks” when wearing traditionally female attire to class and that many women in CENG alter the way they dress for STEM courses.
“I’m like, ‘Okay, maybe I should go back to sweats,’” she said.“People feel uncomfortable wearing dresses or wearing a lot of makeup or dressing up for engineering class because they feel like they won’t be taken seriously.”
Microaggressions like these, coupled with the lack of female representation in STEM, can often leave women wondering if they truly belong in CENG. Computer science sophomore Samantha Soto has battled with imposter syndrome, defined by Harvard Business Review as “a collection of feelings of inadequacy that persist despite evident success.”
“There’re so many accomplished people in STEM, but they’re mostly guys,” Soto said. “Even though, from a surface level, I know I am [capable of succeeding], deep down you still have that imposter syndrome.”
Many are hopeful that the future will bring more female representation in STEM and less hostility in the workplace. For the time being, however, women in STEM must persevere against inherent sexism in their field. Finger suggests that women experiencing imposter syndrome or gender-based discrimination find a community they can turn to for support.
“Create a network of allies, people that are supportive,” she said. “I think organizations like SWE are really good at helping you connect with people and have these conversations that might be harder to have if you’re working in an environment that’s 80 percent men.”