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niyad

(112,434 posts)
Thu Oct 8, 2015, 01:30 PM Oct 2015

We Heart: Engineering Student Jared, a True Feminist Ally

We Heart: Engineering Student Jared, a True Feminist Ally


Last week, Eastern Washington University engineering student Jared Mauldin wrote a letter to the editor of his school’s newspaper, The Easterner, in which he showed what it means to be a true feminist ally.



. . . . .

UPDATE: Jared tells the Ms. Blog,

I absolutely consider myself a feminist! Feminism is about establishing equality, not superiority and that is something I am completely behind. … I was married to a feminist for 10 years and though I didn’t see the subtle [sexism] at first, over time she helped me to understand the subtle comments that add up to a net social push. Once you see it, you see how often it really happens, and you can’t take up a position of ignorance anymore.

[My friend Holly Jeanneret motivated me to write the letter]. When Holly and I started Calculus 1 I quickly realized that while I was pretty good at math, she was better; a lot better. Holly consistently outscored me on exams and homework assignments, she understood the concepts on a level I couldn’t match. However, I often saw other men walk right past her and wander around the class looking for another partner. If they did partner with her, they were hyper-critical, they talked over her, they talked directly to me and barely acknowledged she was there. If Holly disagreed on an answer, instead of looking at both answers to find out who had done something wrong, as was common when I worked with other men, I saw them jump to the conclusion that she was must be wrong. It wasn’t just Holly. Since then I have seen the same behavior from men in nearly every class.

What happens when we start pushing some of these thinkers to the side? When they opt for other paths not because this isn’t a calling, but because they see the challenges as outweighing the rewards? I want companies to have access the best thinkers and the best ideas available and if we push certain people out of this field for reasons that have nothing to do with ability, we can’t have that result.

We [men] can’t know what it feels like to grow up in a society where these subtle slights are the norm; a society where women have become so accustomed to them that they can only recall the major ones. We cannot empathize, and our experiences are not the same, but we can listen and try to understand. From there, we can act.

http://msmagazine.com/blog/2015/10/07/we-heart-engineering-student-jared-a-true-feminist-ally/

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DinahMoeHum

(21,737 posts)
1. As the saying goes: "Real men of quality. . .
Thu Oct 8, 2015, 01:35 PM
Oct 2015

". . .are not threatened by women seeking equality. . ."

Jared Mauldin is a real man of quality.

hunter

(38,264 posts)
4. I started college as an engineering major in the 'seventies.
Thu Oct 8, 2015, 02:05 PM
Oct 2015

The environment was toxic, plenty of classes with only men. I changed my major to biology where the classes had a much better ratio of men and women, and the discourse between students outside of class was a little more sophisticated than cars, "babes," and dirty jokes.

There has been some progress, but there's still a long way to go.

The situation in software development is especially bad. I posted a recent story of a prominent Linux kernel developer who quit because of the sexism and bullying:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/11388220

My wife works in a similar "boys club" environment, in a place where most men would be happy to call themselves "liberal" and "progressive." But they bristle whenever any woman calls them on their sexism. The simply will not recognize their own sexist behavior.

niyad

(112,434 posts)
7. I am sorry that your wife has to work in such an environment. we should not, in the 21st
Thu Oct 8, 2015, 09:28 PM
Oct 2015

century, have to deal with this kind of backwards thinking.

roguevalley

(40,656 posts)
5. I could cry. When I was a kid you could be a secretary, teacher, nurse or mama.
Thu Oct 8, 2015, 04:37 PM
Oct 2015

now there are boys and men like this. Bravo

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