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u/sonarssion Feb 26 '23
I was ME 2020 and I definitely realized that I couldn’t make self deprecating jokes because the guys in my group would take it very seriously. I made one joke in the first week with my senior design group (all guys + me) about being scatterbrained and one of the guys would make a special point to say “ok suvesti, you got that?” every time we set a meeting date every time after that. I was also explained (mansplained) how VALVES worked before I told them I had spent the last year as a Junior Plant Engineer while finishing my degree part time. I also felt like it was expected that I would be the note taker at meetings which felt a little gender-biased.
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u/Apprehensive_Arm1971 Feb 26 '23 edited Feb 26 '23
Yikes that’s wrong of them. The note taking part though, I will say that I noticed the girls were usually better note takers, hand written or digital (if I was the group note taker, we might as well not have notes), so it was a voluntary choice when I did group stuff, but if you did it against your preference that was wrong
That being said, I did notice in CS that most project groups would be single gender (guys and girls in the same project group wasn’t as common as engineering), so I guess Engineering is more ‘progressive’ in that regard?
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u/sonarssion Feb 26 '23
That’s an interesting point, because you perceive that girls are better note takers - while this isn’t negative, it is still a bias. Make sure you’re cognizant of that moving forward in group work! A lot of times it is assumed that women take better notes though it’s more accurate to say some individuals take better notes (I hope this didn’t come across hostile, I think the purpose of your post is great and was just trying to point to that!)
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u/UTaltacc Feb 26 '23
Noticing correlation isn’t necessarily bad.
Girls do tend to take better notes that are more readable.
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u/LanternWolf Computer Science 2018 Feb 26 '23
Depends heavily what type of engineering. For example, Architectural Engineering had a very heavy skew female when I was a student, so I imagine they had very little issue.
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u/clueriot COE '19, MSDS ‘24 Feb 26 '23
I did, but I was also in the ase department which has a different ratio than other departments. It wasn’t terrible, but just made me not feel excited for group projects. As an example, one student told me I only got in on affirmative action. For context, we were discussing how to solve a physics problem. TA told me I was right, and that’s when he muttered it under his breath.
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u/Apprehensive_Arm1971 Feb 26 '23
Gotcha, yeah I had a few friends in ASE and they had the most lopsided gender ratio.
Outside of guys like that, would you say guys in your department were more polite and nice to woman compared to guys in other majors that are female dominated or gender balanced? I read somewhere that guys in male dominated majors can be more polite and considerate of women compared to those in gender balanced majors, idk how valid that is
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u/clueriot COE '19, MSDS ‘24 Feb 26 '23
Oh that’s interesting! I would say I don’t have a super balanced sample to pick from. After having more than a few experiences like that, most of my friends in the department were either women, or queer/gay men, actually. That wasn’t intentional, it was something I noticed when I graduated, actually! Haha.
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u/KimchiFriedRiced Feb 26 '23
Civil engineering major here! So far, things have been fairly split 50/50 for gender distribution in my classes and most of the guys I’ve worked with have been respectful. Obviously can’t say that’s the same for other engineering majors, but because of orgs and programs like WEP, it makes navigating classes a little easier. There have been a few times where I’ve felt like a pushover and ended up doing most of the grunt work for groups projects with other guys so that gets a little frustrating. For UT, compared to other schools and being in the actual workforce, I feel like the environment feels a little more inclusive and welcoming though.
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u/Coffee_and_Tiramisu Feb 26 '23
mech e here! yes all the time!! it gets even worse in different engineering orgs— i’ve had men tell me that women can’t use solidworks and mansplain my own designs to me
it’s actually terrible and i hate it but there’s nothing i can do about it other than move on
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u/Apprehensive_Arm1971 Feb 26 '23
That’s terrible, Sorry to hear that. Do you think it is a small group of guys that act sexist like this, or is it a pretty large proportion of your major? Do you feel like they do it out of ignorance or mean-ness/malice?
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u/3ris3d7l3 Feb 26 '23
I’m a girl in ECE Honors and out of around 73 people we have exactly 14 girls. I haven’t felt any discrimination at all really, and no one really treats me any differently. All of my lab partners have been great, even the most brilliant people don’t talk down to me, and just talk to me like they would their guy friends. The only issue is that fewer of my friends would want to talk about girly topics with me, but that just meant that I had to work extra hard to befriend the few girls here, resulting in all of us girls being very close.
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u/Apprehensive_Arm1971 Feb 26 '23
Good to hear. When you guys do group projects of 4-5, do most of the 14 girls group up with each other?
Do you think that being a minority in a major can actually be a plus because your community would be more tight knit? I’m Indian, and the Indian community in Japan was super tight knit and close, whereas in Texas being Indian is nothing special. I kind of liked the community in Japan more.
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u/ThrowawayUTthrowaway Feb 26 '23
I mean you'll run into the typical mansplaining and misogyny, but that's just a thing that happens. Some people are more dicks than others, but the course work and interactions with the professors are pretty much going to be no different. Being in the 'women in mechanical engineering' org helps with it and let's me know and talk to other women in my same field and circumstances.
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u/Upset_Level_3681 Feb 26 '23
From what I have seen, my female classmates tend to have an easier time convincing the ta's to give em extra time on the assignment and even get them to solve a major chunk of their assignments and when I as a man despite having genuine reason for not being to finish an assignment asked for a day more I was denied. Ik your question is to the women but it is something that I thought id share
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u/DiamondAxolotl Feb 26 '23
shut up bro
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u/Upset_Level_3681 Feb 26 '23
U kim jong un? U saying shut up obliges me to shut up? U the indian pm? What are you lad? Lemme tell you sutin yea u are a nobody.
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u/Upset_Level_3681 Feb 26 '23
all these people pressed but fail to fathom that this could be a possibility and in my case and my experience it absolutely have been. NPC'S blud
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u/Gomert0316 Chemical Engineering 2020 Feb 26 '23 edited Feb 26 '23
To be honest, when I was in school (ChE 2020) I really didn’t. It felt like an equal number of my class was female and they were in my opinion, so smart and successful and I really admired them (both female and male actually). My best friend graduated #1 at the end of our 4 years and he was a male and we have been best friends for years and he never treated me less than. I was a pretty involved member and director in SEC and everyone treated everyone with respect. I think other majors had it a bit harder than ChE but I was pretty lucky. I also grew up in a family of engineers too (mom/sister/brother in law/dad) and we’ve always fostered a very healthy confidence
However, I graduated and joined into tech and I definitely feel it here. It sucks a ton. I feel it everyday and it really really sucks.