<p>Okay so at lunch the other day, I told one of my guy friends that I got deferred from MIT. And his response was, "Why do you wanna go there? I heard from one of my female friends that goes there that the way the students there treat girls really sucks."</p>
<p>And then when I asked for elaboration he said that apparently there is some male MIT elitist attitude that females are 'inferior.' Of course my automatic reaction was to tell him to stop trashing my favorite college that I haven't even been accepted to (yet :P) and told him that of course MIT boys don't treat females wrongly, most of them are probably too socially awkward to talk to girls. (lol, kidding.)</p>
<p>Anyways, my question is has anybody heard of any accounts of females being treated as inferior happening? Small or large incidents? I mean, of course no one on this board is going to completely trash the whole school but stilll... do you think that the feeling of inferiority was all in that one girl's head?</p>
<p>Believe it or not, this is a completely false stereotype. </p>
<ol>
<li><p>I’ve never been treated as “inferior” or anything of the sort by anyone at MIT because I am female. MIT is packed with girls. They’re all beautiful and brilliant. Why would any guy- let alone anyone- hate on them? There is no feeling whatsoever of some sort of gender stratification. </p></li>
<li><p>Some guys are socially awkward. Some. As a matter of fact, I’d say very few. One week into MIT, and I had already attended more parties per unit time than I had in the entirety of my life where many, many good looking guys and girls (yes MIT males are not the dorky type you’d imagine) would go and dance and act crazy and overall have a great time. </p></li>
</ol>
<p>So… your friend is just repeating false, ancient stereotypes. Good luck with your app! =)</p>
<p>Number of times male MIT students insinuated I was undeserving of my spot: 0
Number of times rejected male MIT applicants insinuated I was undeserving of my spot: please don’t make me count</p>
<p>Maybe admissions has learned to weed those out? =)</p>
<p>^Or it might be the jealousy of those unaccepted?</p>
<p>Why is it that people assume that those who are really smart are socially awkward? I really hate that stereotype. It’s really quite the opposite in most cases.</p>
<p>MetdethGNR: Haha, I knowww. I said I was kidding about the social awkwardness :P</p>
<p>LauraN: This seems more realistic. At my school, there were five EA applicants to MIT. And only one of them got accepted while three got deferred, including me, and one rejection. And one of my guy friends who is applying RD told me, “How did you not get in? You’re black…and a female!” .__. Yes, because of course affirmative action, race-wise and gender-wise, gets you into MIT EVERY time without having to actually do any work. lol</p>
<p>Jimmy797: Oh, I know plenty of smart, socially awkward males and females. Haha. The stereotype probably comes from the fact that they’re too into their schoolwork to have a social life. This is really only true for some people though. I know plenty of smart people that are very outgoing as well.</p>
<p>I mean, I don’t think that MIT is some sort of magical wonderland where no sexism at all takes place. It’s been pretty much on par with what I’ve seen in other contexts - there will always be someone who’s surprised that you’re a girl in CS, for example. I think that the stereotyping that you’ll get from the outside world for being an MIT kid is actually worse than any sexism I’ve ever encountered in the sciences. A lot of the kids who got rejected from MIT will go on to be really bitter to <em>anyone</em> who was accepted, not just the girls…</p>
<p>Seems like it would be unwise to go to MIT and be confident that you’re superior to anyone. That’s like being confident about playing hopscotch in a minefield. lolz</p>
<p>k4r3n2: I mean, I wouldn’t say it’s a “magical wonderland” of no sexism, but I have encountered FAR less sexism at MIT than elsewhere. Sure, there might be the occasional person who is surprised to find a female in CS, but compare that to the real world, where it’s only the occasional person who DOESN’T express shock about it. Honestly, I cannot think of a time in the past year and a half (in other words, since graduation) when I told someone I was an engineer and DIDN’T get a response that focused on my gender.</p>
<p>But yeah, the stereotyping people practice against you just for being from MIT is pretty bad. I’ve had some pretty awful experiences in that regard as well.</p>
<p>My experiences in the “real world” have been remarkably different - it is far more the “oh, you went to MIT” than the “oh, you have ovaries”. Possibly CS is more progressive than MechE.</p>
<p>Hmm, interesting. I’m not sure how to interpret that- the reactions I’m referring to have not been from people in the industry, actually. They’re reactions from people I meet generally in my everyday life. The basic “getting to know you” question that comes up right away is “What do you do?” and my response nearly always draws a comment about my gender. It’s mostly with older people (by older I mean 40+, not “old” but certainly not my generation). Friends of friends and so on tend to take it in stride, but then, they also all tend to be engineers, CS types, MIT alums I didn’t actually meet while there, etc.</p>
<p>Actually, now that I think about it more, it’s generally the 40-something housewives that are surprised that I’m majoring in computer science - older men generally respond something along the lines of “oh, great, there are a lot of jobs in CS” or something, but women generally respond “wow! it’s great to see a girl who likes computers!” I personally find this sort of attitude really annoying / kind of offensive, but that’s a topic for a different thread. In any case, with regards to the OP’s original question, I can’t think of a situation in which my abilities have been negatively stereotyped due to my gender (although, there’s always a chance that, when I tell my best friend that I’ve done poorly on an assignment, he will look at me fake-seriously and tell me that it’s because my true role on earth is making him sandwiches).</p>
<p>I have been running into some frustrating stereotyping due to things related to gender recently, and realizing that academic science is a little less gender-blind than people would like to believe it is. I think there has been some real progress made on the idea that it’s okay to be a female scientist, but it’s still often not okay to be feminine and a scientist. </p>
<p>I’ve integrated a few comments from a scientist I respect (not all directed at me) and realized that this person sees wearing a skirt for a presentation to be equivalent to trying to “distract” the audience with sexuality. As much as I find that totally bizarre, I can’t imagine those opinions are unique – there must be some percentage of scientists who judge me because I prefer to wear a skirt and heels for presentations. And that bothers me, because I think that part of “it’s okay to be a [whatever] and a scientist” is “it’s okay to be who you are.” I mean, we’re not talking about a miniskirt and stilettos. </p>
<p>I agree with you guys – although MIT isn’t perfect with respect to gender-based discrimination, it’s a heck of a lot better than the rest of the world.</p>