2B

Magazine Editor:

Karl Williams

Deputy Editor:

Nabeel Chollampat

Design Editor:

Shane Achenbach

Photo Editor:

Zoey Holmstrom

Creative Director:

Emilie Farrugia

Editor in Chief:

Shoham Geva

Managing Editor:

Laura Schinagle

Copy Editors:

Emily Campbell

Alexis Nowicki

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

