The Part of Being a Woman in STEM No One Talks Bbout

Your classes will be hard, but everyone knows that.

We all have heard of the gender disparities in STEM between men and women, the constant harassment women can receive in this field or even the way men constantly take credit for the work women do. But the part of STEM no one prepared me for was the fact that I always have to know what I want to happen next. 

From day one of college, adults were asking me what I wanted to do with my life. I had just gotten to the next big step of growing up and from the first second there were people already asking me what the next part is. I wasn’t prepared for all the questions. 

In my first year, I was constantly questioning myself. It wasn’t because of how hard my classes were, I knew they were going to be and I was prepared for them; it was how often people would make me question if science was really something I wanted to do with my life. Even my advisors seemed to be doubting my abilities. To declare a STEM major they asked me a bunch of questions that all had the same tone: are you sure you want to do this? Going to school at a large research university I knew there wouldn’t be any hand holding, but I at least thought my advisor would be directly in my corner. 

I got into school for Chemistry because in high school I was good at it. I thought that if it was something I was good at, I should do something with it. However, nobody told me how draining studying something you didn’t truly love was. I changed my major four times before getting to where I am now, and I was completely alone in the process. Nobody was there to encourage me to switch. Instead, I got a lot of “why?” and “but you’re good at this.” It’s different liking science in college because there’s no one there to advocate for your choices or even tell you it’s the right decision. 

As a woman in STEM, I have finally picked a major that makes me happy and passionate about what my future holds. But even now I still get that frustrating question: so what are you going to do with that degree? Spoiler alert: if you say anything other than pre-med people are going to need a ten-minute explanation of why not. This is the hardest part of being a woman in STEM; defending yourself to the people who are meant to be in your corner. 

So now, if you’re in STEM and someone asks you: what’s next? Just say you’re focusing on your current degree and save yourself the self-doubt and twenty minutes of trying to defend yourself. 

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