Women in STEM
I am a woman in STEM and will be pursing a career in medicine and like me many other young girls are passionate about saving lives of others, creating a world-famous break through in your field, building a career and reputation for yourself.
Typically, STEM is a male dominated industry which is what makes it terrifying as a female to enter due to the constant gender discrimination like the gender pay gap or even the lack of senior positions for women but unfortunately, I am going to focus on the worser acts of despicable sexual harassment.
Due to the lack of female influence in this industry, women in medicine careers are constantly sexualised, like nurses or surgeons.
There are many stories out in articles such as in the BBC: Female Surgeons Sexually Assaulted While Operating, there is a case about a surgeon who was harassed by a senior male surgeon who wiped off his brow sweat using her cleavage two times and when she asked him to use something he proceeded to smirk and made it even more inappropriate.
Many females have been asked or even accused of using sexual acts a a way of promotion since men believe the only way a women can be successful is through those actions.
Unfortunately, these are just a few stories about a section of STEM that have surfaced up as first many women hesitate to speak up due to fear of loosing their careers, being blacklisted or even fear of nobody believing their events as a man wins against a woman always.
I wrote this not to dishearten young females from pursing their dreams but instead as a warning that even the most educated men do not treat women with their deserved dignity and as a push that you stand your ground so these acts do not happen or you speak up and ensure your justice is served because you have earned your way to that position and deserve to feel safe everywhere, especially your workplace.
According to that article, 63% of respected surgeons exclaimed that they had been the targets of sexual assault from colleagues. 63% is 63% too much.
