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RNPhalaropeOctober 19, 2024
Women dominate health care careers.
I wonder what the figures would look like if they started counting health care careers as STEM careers? Because they really are. No on can become a nurse or medical laboratory professional, or physical therapist, or phatmacist, etc. without a heavy curriculum in the sciences. And they use it on the job every fricking day!
[Deleted]October 18, 2024
The heading seems to blame the women/girls instead of structural and systemic misogyny, no?
There's a lot that goes into that intersection of women's mental health/confidence/STEM careers, that couldn't be covered in a 2min segment.
I'm firmly Millennial, so older than the girls talked about in this clip, but just for the sake of context my high school maths teacher was a dinosaur who firmly held (and frequently let on as much) that girls couldn't math, and should stick to soft subjects like modern languages. That wasn't that long ago, and I wonder how many girls are still growing up hearing essentially that from either relatives, acquaintances, or even their teachers. I'm now mid-30s and still not confident with numbers, even though in practice, I knit, I sew, both of those things require quite a lot of fairly precise maths (just not algebra).
I know women in STEM, who are regularly the only woman in the room at meetings etc and find the "boys' club" atmosphere really quite tiring. That can be a drain on mental health and confidence.
But I also know that at least one of those women went into a STEM career from a place of lack of confidence and mental health challenges caused by growing up female. CPTSD from childhood SA, being stalked, being assaulted in college, you name it. They could have gone into any career, and be facing similar challenges, but it's definitely exacerbated by being in such a male-dominated environment.
If we really want girls to go into STEM and not just burn out after a few years, we need to be looking at this holistically and not just the myopic "how do we get girls into STEM" approach. Support girls to grow up unmolested, and they will be confident whatever they go into. That's the biggest drain on women's mental health, imo.
Thank you for saying this. There is inadequate recognition of how draining it is to not just do your stressful, fast-paced, competitive job; but to do it while constantly playing defense against what should be your own team. We cannot spend 8+ hours a day being gaslit and dismissed and somehow avoid having that seep into other areas of our lives or impacting our own sense of self.
I found myself re-reading Solnit's "Men Explain Things to Me" essay recently, and this sums up the experience powerfully.
Yes, I completely agree. This is so important to keep in mind.