In my sophomore year of college, I was sitting in a political science course. The large lecture class filled with political science kids just there zoning out trying to complete their general education course, or so I thought. As someone who had been in these types of classes, I knew that the demographic of my class was going to be filled with primarily white men who would go back and forth arguing over political issues. I had grown so accustomed to that being normal that I stopped thinking much of it.
Until one day after class, a freshman girl that I had met at the beginning of the course talked about how stressful the course was. She mentioned how behind she felt in comparison to the rest of our peers and that maybe she wasn’t smart enough to even be in the course. Looking back on the situation now, I should’ve stopped and told her what I had wished someone told me during my freshman year. Because the truth was, I used to be her.
Being one of the first people in my family and friends to pursue a political science major, I had no one to talk to about the environment I would be in and the unwritten expectations that existed. Upon my freshman year, when looking at the demographics of my classes I realized most of my peers and professors were not only majority men but were also white. These men made their presence known by debating back and forth in class discussions. They played devil’s advocate with civil rights issues and spoke with the most elitists forms of political jargon.
I remember thinking that I had come to college to learn about politics, yet it felt like I was expected to already be an expert on the subject. I remember feeling intimidated by some of my peers who seemed to have consumed encyclopedias worth of knowledge. Most importantly, I remember feeling like maybe I wasn’t supposed to be in that field.
However, as I made connections with other women in my government classes, I learned that they not only felt the same way that I did but that they were some of the smartest women I had met in college. With them, I was able to have meaningful conversations about current political affairs, and we learned from each other.
It wasn’t until after freshman year that I began to feel 100% confident in these academic spaces. With encouraging messages from my professors and peers about my performance in class, I realized the worrying I did freshman year didn’t need to happen. I had to learn that I was in college to learn and if I already knew everything, there was no need for me to be in school. I learned to differentiate between the students who knew what they were talking about and others that were just confident and wrong. Yet, I wish I didn’t need that internal struggle to get to where I am now.
So, if I stopped to tell that freshman girl I met in class a few things, this is what they would be:
1. Take up space!
In such a male-dominated field, men are used to occupying excessive amounts of time. You must remind yourself that you are entitled to as much space as they are. Fill the room with substance and your ideas no matter how far-fetched you might believe them to be. Don’t do it to impress the male peers around you, but to show yourself that you are just as capable if not more of participating in the discourse they create.
2. You don’t need to know everything and trying to is exhausting.
One of my key findings is that my male peers often discuss politics as if it is some past time hobby like talking about sports. As a Black woman, my very existence is political. Therefore, I don’t have the same luxury as them to act as if my human rights aren’t constantly up for debate. Unfortunately, there are people that will work to feed off your exhaustion knowing they don’t have much to lose in this country. Knowing how legislation directly impacts you can be exhausting and in a world that will feed off that exhaustion doesn’t give it more.
3. You’re allowed to learn and make mistakes.
Don’t add unnecessary pressure to yourself to be perfect at all times, you are in college to learn. No matter how great your high school government class was, it doesn’t prepare you for all the information you will be confronted with. Give the information you’re consuming time to process and click in your head.
4. If you know what you’re talking about don’t be afraid to speak on it!
Don’t allow your professor, peers, or even yourself to discredit your points.
5. Keep going
If there was a single piece of advice I could to all the women studying anything in the political field, it would be to keep going. In a world where men still dominate discussions about what women can do with their bodies, where female leaders are told they are either too sensitive or too aggressive to lead and where women are still fighting for equal rights, never let your male competitors convince you can’t succeed in this field.