Newspeak Staff Photo / Ed Cameron
Women's Lacrosse: One of the few female varsity sports here at WPI. But, their numbers have been increasing, and will continue to, with the projected high number of female freshman expected to register next year.
Sommyr Pochan, EE '98, does not completely agree with this statement. "Trends are not changing at WPI. WPI is recruiting more females but it is for the biotech program and not engineering. When I walk into EE there will be 700 people and 5 of them will be girls, but in biotech the ratio seems to be fifty-fifty."
This does cause some inconvenience for some females. Nicole Robert, PH '97, for instance, is one out of the only three females in her major. And more often than not the only female in some of the upperclassmen classes. "At first I was a little intimidated. But then I got comfortable as I got to know the other people (classmates) and I got a chance to be myself."
She is careful, however, as to imply that her intimidation came from her peers or professors. "It is not something that the people in class made me feel. It was something that I went in feeling already... I thought people were going to assume that I was not smart so I have to prove myself to be smart," said Robert.
All the people interviewed agree that WPI is not a sexist school, or at least not as sexist as one would expect it to be. "There is some sexism on campus, like there is racism...one knows it happens.... But it is not like I have ever had a guy pick on me just because I'm a female," says Plack, "but on the other hand, it is hard to determine what problems arise from the fact that you are a female, from those who arise for something you did...Unless somebody comes and actually says 'YOU are JUST a girl.'"
Being a minority in a predominantly male campus has not prevented them from assuming key leadership positions on campus organizations. Even though there are only seven organizations whose primary focus are women issues, women have taken leadership roles on other organizations as well. "If you look at WPI club and organizations, you will find that many women are in command. It just seem we really like to get involved." said Pochan. Samuels explains that being a minority it is not something that is constantly on their mind. "It doesn't affect my thinking. I ran for the presidency of NSBE and I never thought that I was a female and the club is formed by males almost in its entirety, I just wanted to run for president, so I ran for it," said Samuels.
Others differ a little bit from that line of thinking, arguing that the fact that they are a minority is what motivates them to achieve more. "Sometimes when you are a minority you work harder," said Flavia Souto, ME '97, who is doing co-op right now. Robert during her interview mentioned that it was her self-induced pressure which made her work harder to prove herself to be as smart as, if not smarter, than her peers. Some of the interviewees claim that this self-induced pressure comes from the fact that there is a common misconception regarding the involvement of women in mathematics and engineering. "There is a common misconception... people think women generally do not belong in math and science and I think that it is not true. It has got to do with your exposure to these areas and your family," said Patricia Sears CE '96.
" A lot of women are brought up with the notion that they are not supposed to be in these fields that they are supposed to pursue more nurturing careers like teaching or become social workers and it is just not true. Women do belong in science and engineering," emphasized Sears.
Kirsty Reidy, MEA '96, an one of the only three females in her major echoes Sears' sentiment: "If somebody wants something bad enough, it should not matter if you are male or female, black or white."
However, there are certain differences that they wish they could be overcome. They commented that sometimes is uncomfortable when males in group meetings or lunch change the topics and start talking about other females in front of them. They don't really mind it but feel that certain details could be omitted. "It is offensive to me when they start talking about this girl...and they go 'she did this to me and so and so and she is a broad and on and on...,'" Pochan said and the rest of the group agreed.
The point according to them is for the guys to be a little more conscious of the things they say about females. They do not want to be treated differently. "It bothers me that the first thing that that is the first thing that pops into a guys head, in the corporate world, is if whatever he says might offend me." Pochan also mentioned the fact that a lot of women feel the males have a deep misconception of all the females at WPI. "I don't want to be treated differently because I am a girl. I don't like guys coming on to me saying can I help you with this? can I help you with this? But most males think we (females at WPI) think we are above all the men here and we think that all men here suck. That's not true." Pochan said. According to most interviewees , the "WPI/Tech chick" attitude, as some WPI have called it, is false. "They (men) think we can have our choice of boyfriends and what not, and that males will just jump at our command which is definitely not true. Females at WPI do not assume that" Robert said.
According to Robert that complicates the social scene at WPI more than the ratio itself, "a lot of time guys are not interested in socializing with us and they rather hang out with girls from another school because they assume we have "the tech chick" attitude. And that is something that you hear all the time. They are not taking the time to get to know us. I will admit that there might be more females like that than I would like to admit but we all are not like that."
"I know men whose favorite hobby is to gripe about the fact that there are not women at WPI. But I see packs of women walking across campus, chatting and walking. And then I see packs of males walking across campus. Very rarely I see a mixture of male and females socializing other than at parties." said Plack.
But as Reidy emphasizes, being a female at WPI is not their main concern. "I never think of it at WPI. I see everybody as equals regardless of what they seem as. WPI has something for everybody, no matter who you are."
Newspeak Staff Photo / Ed Cameron
Women's Lacrosse: One of the few female varsity sports here at WPI. But, their numbers have been increasing, and will continue to, with the projected high number of female freshman expected to register next year.