Good morning, beautiful women of Ovarit! I have a story I'll try to keep succinct, and a question at the end for those of you in STEM fields.

10ish years ago when I first began my college journey, I was influenced to study mathematics by the best math instructor I've ever had. She was a woman who was so kind, intelligent, and encouraging, and I had no idea what career I wanted to pursue until I took her classes. It was an easy decision to study math and become a professor like her.

She never let on to her political views, and at the time I had no idea how much politics played a part in the education system. However, when I started undergrad, things drastically changed. I had professors who decorated their offices with all things liberal, would openly talk politics in the classroom, and most of my fellow classmates were staunchly liberal to an unhealthy degree. I was absolutely the black sheep of the entire department, and learned very early on to not speak about my opposing political views.

One of my professors once asked me, on a trip to a math conference, what my political views were since I was one of the only women studying pure math. This was the turning point for me, because after I disclosed I'm conservative and didn't push the matter any harder, that professor consistently graded me lower than my male classmates - and she was a woman, who had tenure. I brought it up to the university but was ultimately told, "We get complaints about her a lot, but there's nothing we can do". Hers was the only class I ever received a D in, which almost ruined my passion for math and nearly made me decide to quit, but I had already graduated.

Tldr, I had worse experiences in graduate school. The department chair once asked me, "Oh, so you want nuclear war?!?" when I wasn't crying in the faculty lounge after Trump was elected in 2016.

Sigh. I made it through grad school and even taught at a university for a few years recently, but it's absolutely fucking terrifying honestly. The gender ideology they push on faculty members is insane. There were required gender seminars, seminars to discuss how to best navigate "marginalized" groups, seminars to test your bias and how that could influence your grading, etc...

So, my fellow women in STEM fields: how do you do it? How do you keep your passion up for your chosen field while simultaneously ignoring or coping with the forced political agendas? Is it like this in other fields too, not just education?

Thank you for your time and have a wonderful Christmas day!

Edit: I want to try to respond to all the wonderful women who replied here, but I'm busy with Christmas stuff and might not get the chance. I always thought myself fairly conservative, but I hold similar views to many of you - and I am very pro-choice. Conservative feminist? Sounds contradictory, but it's the closest I can get to describe my political leanings. Politically conservative, for the most part lol. I'm not religious but I respect religions, not just Christianity. The issue I raised here is that one political ideology is "allowed" in the education workplace, and one is not. I don't believe any political views should be upheld and favored more than any other in any workplace, unless you specifically chose a political field.