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Magazine Editor:
Karl Williams
Deputy Editor:
Nabeel Chollampat
Design Editor:
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Photo Editor:
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Creative Director:
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Managing Editor:
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Jose Rosales
the statement
Wednesday, February 17, 2016 / The Statement
A
t a storytelling on campus a few months ago, my
blood was boiling. A girl around my age was read-
ing a piece on feminism, but she was highlight-
ing the reasons why her desire to lead made her “not a
woman.” She said she was defying gender norms with
her desire to succeed; she was acting like a man when she
accessed success. “I’m not a woman when I say I want to
be president of the United States.”
Perhaps what she meant was that people would not
associate her actions as being female when she acts this
way. But it made me uncomfortable. She was shaming her
identity rather than celebrating it.
Why are we women always trying to shed our feminin-
ity? Why are success and being female at odds? Why are
we told to “grow some balls” when we want to succeed? Is
there anything good about being a woman?
Advice for women in the workplace typically empha-
sizes the need to be more assertive. Speak up in meetings.
Negotiate for a raise. Brag. Become male, essentially. And
while that’s necessary for survival, at a certain point we’re
becoming self-hating women. We don’t want to have any
feminine traits.
Moreover, when I’m told to act like a man, I wonder if
men are ever told to act like a woman — a better listener,
creative, generally not socially inept — or if it’s just women
who should change themselves.
Take nursing and engineering — both dominated by one
gender, and both rapidly growing professions. The tribu-
lations of being a woman in the sphere of engineering are
a common topic of discussion. And rightly so — women in
engineering have to face, to be brief, a whole fucking lot
of shit. To respond to that problem, a slew of nonprofits,
politicians and companies are focused on getting women
into tech.
But why don’t we want more male nurses?
The numbers prove that nursing is growing more quick-
ly than software, in both number of jobs and salary. Home
health care services and outpatient care services are pro-
jected to lead salary growth in America, respectively, at
4.8 percent and 4.1 percent in the next decade. The first
software jobs are further down the list — tech consulting
services and software publishing will grow at just over 2
percent in the next decade.
Only 9.4 percent of nurses are men. People are con-
cerned that women aren’t encouraged to be logical and
interested in science, but no one seems to care that many
men lack the empathy and intelligence necessary to
become a nurse. My move to take a programming class my
freshman year was lauded as some sort of bold feminist
move that would be rewarded with a great internship, but
no one seems excited about men in the School of Nurs-
ing — despite the stability and excellent expectations for
growth that field promises.
I’m supposed to take programming courses not because
it’s a growing industry, but because it’s a male-dominated
one. If that wasn’t the reason, then why don’t we see more
campaigns to get men involved in nursing?
We’re championing a wrong sort of gender equality.
Certain brands of feminism have become about dropping
everything womanly just to become male. It’s gotten to
the point where completely neutral behaviors are seen as
negative, solely because young women overwhelmingly
have them. It’s bad to be emotional simply because it’s bad
to be a woman, and industries like education, nursing and
publishing, which are overwhelmingly female, aren’t pri-
oritized due to their demographic makeup.
***
I cried at my internship last summer. Hunched over my
desk, hiding my face, drops fell off my face onto my desk
after one of my bosses was short with me in front of our
entire office. This was bad, but thankfully no one noticed.
I was too ashamed to tell anyone, especially my mom
and especially my female friends. I committed the big-
gest vice — the number one way a woman can lose respect
from everyone around her in the workplace. At 20, I had
already failed at the office gymnastics I’m required to do
to avoid being slapped with the label of “emotional.”
I’m sick of being ashamed that I cried. I’m sick of being
scared that I wear skirts too often, or that I absentmind-
edly touch my hair. None of these actions are inherently
bad, save for the fact that women tend to do them.
When I enter the workforce, I certainly intend to nego-
tiate my salary and state my opinions in meetings. Not
because I’m tapping into some secret Y chromosome
within me, but because I’m very happily being a socially
savvy, creative and intelligent woman.
A Filtered Life: Walk Like A Woman
B Y R A C H E L P R E M A C K
the
tangent
THOUGHT BUBBLE: SPRING BREAK
“I’m planning on going to California for spring
break. I’m going to visit family and eat a lot of
In-N-Out Burger.”
– Engineering sophomore Nichole Nguyen
ILLUSTRATION BY EMILIE FARRUGIA