As a student of STEM (Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics), Jared Mauldin has witnessed first hand how women aren’t treated equally in the field.
Women “are in fact unequal,” he wrote in a letter to the editor of the student newspaper at Eastern Washington University where he is studying mechanical engineering.
The letter is addressed to his fellow female students who he insists are not his peer.
“To the women in my engineering classes,” he wrote. “While is is my intention in every other interaction I share with you to treat you as my peer, let me say that you and I are in fact unequal. Sure, we are in the same school program, and you are quite possibly getting the same GPA as I, but does that make us equal?”
Mauldin goes on to list some of the reasons why women aren’t equal.
He explains that how women grow up in a world that discourages them from focusing on STEM subjects.
A world that tells them women shouldn’t get their hands dirty and are labeled as bossy instead of being recognized as having leadership skills.
“I did not, for example, grow up in a world that discouraged me from focusing on hard science. Nor did I live in a society that told me not to get dirty, or said I was bossy for exhibiting leadership skills. In grade school, I never had to fear being rejected by my peers because of my interests.”
Mauldin goes on to claim that women are at a disadvantage because marketing places their self-worth in their looks, their teachers underestimate them, and are looked down upon as the “diversity hire.”
“I was not bombarded by images and slogans telling me that my true worth was in how I look and that I should abstain from certain activities because I might be thought too masculine. I was not overlooked by teachers who assumed that the reason I did not understand a tough math or science concept was, after all, because of my gender.”
“I have no difficulty whatsoever with a boys club mentality, and I will not face added scrutiny or remarks of my being the “diversity hire.”
This leaves some to assumed that women are only in the field because of policy instead of having earned their place there.
These are the many reasons Mauldin says he is not equal to his female peers.
“When I experience success the assumption of others will be that I earned it. So, you and I cannot be equal.”
Mauldin says that women in STEM are not equal to men in STEM because women in STEM achieve and surpass far more than men in STEM.
“You have already conquered far more to be in this field that I will ever face,” he says.
Mauldin’s letter ended up going viral.
“Nothing I said was new, it has all been said a thousand times before. The difference is that I am a man,” he said according to Huffington Post. “Maybe by standing up and breaking the silence from the male side, I can help some more men begin to see the issues, and begin to listen to the women who have been speaking about this all along.”
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