Women have been fighting sexism for as long as history can remember. We’ve fought for the right to vote, the right to fight for our country and the right to receive equal pay. We want to be seen and treated as equal because we are in fact equal.
In today’s society, women continue to proudly fight for equality and fair treatment. In emerging and promising STEM fields, women still have to fight to be seen as equals and break glass barriers. Female engineers are constantly fighting stereotypes to prove to men and even other women that they are just as knowledgeable, skilled and capable of being successful in the STEM field as much as anyone else. It truly is awe-inspiring the barriers and expectations women have surpassed in the STEM field.
However, a different type of sexism and bias is often overlooked in the liberal arts field. Men are often looked down upon and even judged by their peers for being in a ‘female’ major, which is a hard realization to come to. This can especially be felt in the dynamic of liberal arts classrooms. In a developmental psychology course, a classroom of over 100 students often has less than 10 males. At the Preschool Learning Lab here at Cal Poly, men are hardly ever seen working or interacting with the kids.
In fact, according to the Cal Poly 2015 Fact Book about 72% of the enrolled first-time freshmen for the College of Liberal Arts in Fall 2011 were female, while in Fall 2015 69.5% of the liberal arts freshmen were female. In comparison, 80% of the enrolled first-time freshmen for the College of Engineering in Fall 2011 were male, while in 2015 72% of the freshmen were male. However, the College of Engineering has worked hard to diversify its demographics, which have since diversified by 8%, while the College of Liberal Arts diversified by less than 2%.
In order for men and women to truly be equal the stigmas and roadblocks, which prevent them from receiving equal and accessible opportunities to pursue their academic or career goals of choice need to end.