[Pauline Tasci]

The contents of this thread thus far have been extremely appalling. This thread started off being about how to make women more comfortable in STEM, and this thread is now just some individuals justifying their harassment and "creepy" behavior at competitions, social media, and beyond.

Let me tell you why this thread is important. Let me tell you girls out there who are too scared to say anything why it is important to say something about a man harassing you.

I've been involved in FRC for 6 years and have been recognizable within my generation of FIRST-ers for about the same time.
With this a lot of random people walk up to you at competition and want to talk to you.

I have had so many cases where people came in with intentions that were not just "making friends" and proceeded to make me feel uncomfortable.
At every event I went to my junior year I had this student on another team who kept harassing me for my number after I repeatably told the individual no. This individual continued to harass me for another year, every competition getting more and more physical, everyone I told kept saying "boys will be boys" and "he likes you."
That was NOT okay and should NOT be taken lightly.
Why is it that this society justifies harassment ?

Now that I'm a mentor I still face harassment everyday at competitions and on social media from random people adding me and wanting to get something out of me.
I’ve had 40 year old volunteers harass me at competition all the way down to freshman boys.
I’ve had people in the community send me sexual pictures that were not asked for.

And this is what I want all the young women reading this to know if something similar has happened to you.
TELL SOMEONE. I wish I did much sooner. The only way to change a culture is to do something about it. It’s to have society realize harassment happens a lot.
If you do not feel comfortable talking to your mentor about it, my inbox is always open for a chat.

As a culture, women are rare to be found in STEM, and it doesn’t help that when we pursue our passion we constantly have to deal with men harassing us.

This is not okay.
This needs to be changed.
This thread should of been the start.