Gender Equality: A Work in Progress

[smurfgirl]

This is an area where mentors, leaders, and/or authority figures can make a big difference. In high school, my team's mentors encouraged me to go a little bit outside my comfort zone to try technical things and supported me through the process, leading to a positive experience. On the flip side, I've had many people in industry assume that I am not a "real engineer", or that I "couldn't possibly be interested in technical stuff". Of course, there are plenty of great people out there in the world too, but you can see how the frequent negative messaging can start to add up and push women out of STEM.