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The most alienating thing that happened to me as a female engineer

niniane.blogspot.com

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Re: The most alienating thing that happened to me as a female engineer

#2
"If I had walked in, and baseball was showing on the television, it would be completely unthinkable for me to grab the remote and change it to Friends. If I had done that, the outcry would've been thundering. People would question my social skills."

Good point. By the way, what a bunch of asholes!

Re: The most alienating thing that happened to me as a female engineer

#5
How many people around there had expressed an interest in baseball and how many prefered Friends?

If there is e.g. an 85+% majority for anything, the minority gets marginalized.

As an expat, I can relate to being in a minority of one and hearing comments that are just taboo back home.

(And personally, I wouldn't watch either.)

Re: The most alienating thing that happened to me as a female engineer

#6
I really don't want to make this sound like I'm diminishing OP's experience, because from the sounds of that the experience sounded awful. However I've experienced pretty much identical treatment over a very similar thing (music) and I'm a male software dev. Wanting to listen to something quiet because the loud commercial radio/adverts that always run are pretty distracting. I can completely relate to her experience as I get similar comments.

The all-male t-shirts, the work mentor being creepy, things like that are shocking to hear and ruffles my feathers as someone who was raised with very strong morals by my parents. However I tend to feel that bullying (on a more basic level) will happen to anyone if you give a group of people (in an stablished social clique) the chance.

I'd like to say though (if the blog OP is on here), massive effort sticking with the industry and not letting it get the better of you, good job.

Re: The most alienating thing that happened to me as a female engineer

#8

You know it's bad when that creepy story about the car is just thrown in as an extra, with no fanfare whatsoever.

I feel that this part of the story might not be exclusive to work situations for a lot of women. But that was particularly creepy sounding compared to the TV.

Re: The most alienating thing that happened to me as a female engineer

#9
post #3

> If I had done that, the outcry would've been thundering. People would question my social skills. They would tell me that I lack social etiquette Sounds like she still is socially retarded. Has she never heard of group dynamic?

It's been awhile since I've seen someone define "culture fit" in such stark terms.

Re: The most alienating thing that happened to me as a female engineer

#10
post #3

> If I had done that, the outcry would've been thundering. People would question my social skills. They would tell me that I lack social etiquette Sounds like she still is socially retarded. Has she never heard of group dynamic?

And it sounds like you need to practice your delivery until you can participate in conversations like a civilized adult.
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