“He told me I should pick a husband, get married, and quit pursuing my degree.”
Many women reached out and graciously spoke about their experiences.
Here’s what they revealed:
Warning: This post contains mentions of sexual assault and harassment.
He said we would all likely fail his course because he claimed student nurses wrote terrible essays.
‘Nothing against nurses,’ he said.
‘It’s probably just because you’re all female.'"
Anonymous
2.
I responded that I would like to be a pilot.
She responded with, ‘Are you sure?
That’s a lot of math and science.
You know girls aren’t good in math and science.’
And yes, SHE responded like that.
That crushed me!!
So, what career path did she put me on?
I became an elementary school teacher.
‘Typical’ career path for a woman."
Did your husband write it for you?’
“In honors math class in high school, I had a lot of questions one day.
You will marry a doctor and eat bonbons all day.'”
I also included a copy of the email when I turned in the evaluation.
He was not there the following year."
“A teacher in high school was super sexist.
She also frequently commented on the appearances of girls in my class.
The joke’s on her, though; I’m a lesbian.”
“In high school, I took a certified nurse assistant course.
One day, the instructor brought in this old man to teach us CPR and some other things.
He talked about heart attack symptoms and how men and women usually experience different symptoms.
Then, he made a dirty joke.
I was so shocked.
No one said anything.
It was silent after he made the joke, and he just sat there grinning.
This was in Utah, the Mormon state.
I wish I called him out.
He was so rude to me afterward when I asked a question.
“As an undergraduate at MIT, at many times, I was the only female in a class.
“In grade school, I had a teacher who would favor the eighth-grade boys.
She would even bring them dinner.
The girls in class with ponytails were dragged down the aisles by their ponytails as punishment.”
“My gym teacher in middle school told me I should get a tan before I wore shorts.
“I took a computer typing class in high school because I couldn’t get better than pecking.
I could text fast but was awful at typing.
“Not a teacher, but an Army recruiter who came to the school during my senior year.
I’d scored well on some tests, and they wanted to meet to discuss enlisting.
I noped right out of the room and ghosted every recruiter who called afterward.
The male teacher in the room said nothing.
“Seventh grade in a new school.
I had always enjoyed working with my hands, so I chose to take woodworking.
I was the only girl in the class.
None of the boys bothered me; they were too busy working on their assignments.
But, the teacher teased me nonstop about my presence in the class.
He would mockingly say, ‘Oh, are you here to build a dollhouse?’
He never let me do anything in peace; he always had to comment on it.
To this day, I don’t understand why he felt the need to bully a child.
I still have the things I made in that class.
I did good work.
I don’t know why he was so annoyed that I was there.”
He told them that they shouldn’t let a girl beat them.
The girl is getting behind the wheel.'”
“He was a well-known, highly-regarded professor in humanities.
Instead, he asked if I had a boyfriend and if I wanted a family.
When I said yes, he said, ‘Maybe you should focus on that…on him.’
Maybe my writing was so amazing he felt threatened.
I’d like to think it was that.
I didn’t stop writing and don’t plan on it.”
“I took a ballroom dance class in college for fun.
The professor insisted on only providing instruction to the male students.
The professor would yell out, ‘Ladies, what’s your job?’
and we would all have to chant, ‘To look pretty!’
This was in 2016.
It was the only class I quit, and I have always regretted not reporting the professor.”
“In an electricity and magnetism course, we learned about hysteresis loops.
After drawing the graph on the board, the professor told us it was shaped like a uterus.
Then he said that the Greeks thought that the uterus made women hysterical.
I want to remind you that this was a physics class, not a history or language class.
Did I mention that I was THE ONLY female in the class?
Is it any wonder that only 20% of physics majors are women?
I was so stunned I couldn’t even respond.
This was at a highly-respected university about 15 years ago.”
“As a freshman in high school, I was failing Algebra I.
Turns out I had undiagnosed dyslexia, sequencing disorders, and ADHD.
It was a case of being too smart for my own good.
Despite my ‘too lazy to do math’ issues, I still got into a good university.
That’s why we have Disability Student Services.
Just come to me next time.'
I wasn’t the careless, clueless, brown girl like my Algebra teacher said.
Suddenly, so much about my life made sense!
Mine was ‘generic’ and ‘too simple,’ and his was ‘refreshing’ and ‘exciting.’
“There’s this chem professor at my college who is infamously sexist.
He giggles and spits uncontrollably every time he does this.
He stands too close behind you when you’re doing lab work and is a total old creep.
He’s FINALLY retiring this year.”
“I went to a vocational high school.
Halfway through freshman year, you got to choose your favorite top four to explore more in-depth.
My fourth choice (commercial design) was full.
I really wish I had told someone or stood up for myself.
I hadn’t found my feminist voice yet.”
There were around 150 guys in those classes.
I ended up having a major depressive episode, quitting uni, and coming back home.
It was only a chance job listing that led me back into it.
I don’t miss IT.
This was in 1999, not 1899.”
I completed my assignments and went to see him for more.
I was so shocked that I had no comeback.
One day, he held me after class to talk about how I didn’t smile enough in class.
Note: Submissions have been edited for length and/or clarity.
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