Making STEM a better place for women

[nerdrock101]

Originally Posted by Philip Arola

Which I will lay out again: Girls should report and talk abut behavior that makes them uncomfortable. I've yet to actually have anyone point to me where we said that they should not. Maybe there was an unintentional implication somewhere, but let me reassure you, that is not what either of us meant.

The problem is that when we are having a discussion of events that have been considered harrasment and the usual "boys will be boys" excuse is brought up, or complaints of blurring the line between social awkwardness and harrassment downplays the real problems we're facing. Are there awkward situations in this world related to maturing at that age? Yes. But that's not what we're trying to address. It's like talking about famine and someone chimes in to complain that we're mistaking it with hunger. They are two separate things.

If you keep having conversations about harrasment you've faced sidetracked into "but was it really that bad" all your life, you might understand why more of us don't come forward to talk about it.