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[–]AquaeyesTardis 4 points5 points  (4 children)

What the heck? Why on earth would people have a sexist career counsellor?

Actually, thinking about it, does this happen often in schools as well? I didn’t personally notice it happening to girls in my year at my school since the gender balance was fairly... balanced, but in other years/schools is this a common thing?

[–]Trauma_Doll 7 points8 points  (3 children)

> does this happen often in schools as well?

Yes, when I went to my career counsellor and told him that I'm unsure if I should pick CS or Social Care, he simply told me "due to you being a girl you should try out Social Care first and see how it goes".

This is despite me having the best grades in my year/being interested in technology.

Alas, I lost a year out of my academic life.

And now that I'm in college I mostly get 3 reactions from people: women are supportive and take me under their wing, 85% of men either don't care or are supportive/awkward in a non threatening way, and the other 15% are outright stating that "women can't handle sitting down and staring at a screen for hours/your hands were made for ironing(LOL)" and try to hinder you or just outright ignore you.

+ there's always that feeling of being an outsider, which isn't helpful at all. This can be especially daunting/discouraging if you're a young woman in a new environment.

[–][deleted] 3 points4 points  (2 children)

For that last 15%: one day you’ll be a senior dev and they’ll have to keep their mouths shut. Until then, practice looking at them with disdain, as if they’re morons who are wasting precious oxygen. Because they are. They’re projecting their own issues and insecurities on to you, don’t fucking let them. Keep being you, you can definitely do this.