EWU student’s letter on sexism goes viral

Jared Mauldin, a senior at Eastern Washington University in Cheney, didn’t expect the avalanche of responses he received after penning a letter to the editor of the school newspaper.

Mauldin wrote of his perceptions on sexism in STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) fields. The letter was published in the Easterner on Sept. 30.

A 34-year-old mechanical engineering major at EWU, Mauldin began his letter: “While it is my intention in every other interaction I share with you to treat you as my peer, let me deviate from that to say that you and I are in fact unequal. Sure, we are in the same school program, and you are quite possibly getting the same GPA as I, but does that make us equal?”

Mauldin followed up by writing that women in EWU’s engineering program likely had to work much harder to prove themselves and earn respect than men in the program did.

“I did not, for example, grow up in a world that discouraged me from focusing on hard science. Nor did I live in a society that told me not to get dirty, or said I was bossy for exhibiting leadership skills,” he wrote.

“I was not bombarded by images and slogans telling me that my true worth was in how I look, and that I should abstain from certain activities because I might be thought too masculine.”

Several days after the letter was published, it went viral online and was shared thousands of times on social media.

Mauldin’s Facebook inbox was bombarded with messages and requests for interviews. The letter was shared on Amy Poehler’s website, amysmartgirls.com, and was shared 10,000 times in the first four hours it went up on the A Mighty Girl Facebook page. At least 10 other websites, including Today.com, wrote about the letter.

A self-described introvert, Mauldin was taken aback by the reaction.

“I was getting messages and letters back from Pakistan and Colombia, and all over the world,” Mauldin said. “I got messages from parents saying they wanted me to marry their daughters.”

The disparity between genders in STEM courses at the university level is well documented.

Women hold about 57 percent of bachelor’s degrees in the U.S., and more than 60 percent of master’s degrees, but they make up only 24 percent of the STEM workforce, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.

Women are significantly under-represented in engineering and computer occupations – just 13 percent and 26 percent of the workforce, respectively, according to U.S. Census Bureau data.

According to EWU spokesman Dave Meany, only about 8 or 9 percent of the majors in electrical and mechanical engineering at the Cheney university are women.

Jessica Willis, a professor in EWU’s Women’s and Gender Studies program, said research shows girls have internalized cultural norms about gender long before college or even high school.

“We thought it was happening in adolescence, but it’s in preadolescence that girls in particular are likely getting pushback against gender boundaries,” Willis said. “By adolescence, gender is more firmly cemented and they’ve internalized the cultural ideas around where they will be successful and rewarded. By then, young girls have internalized the idea that their greatest worth is located in their bodies or becoming an actress rather than an astronaut.”

Mauldin said he was flattered and amazed by the response to his letter, but questioned why it garnered so much attention when “feminists have been saying this for years.”

He asked himself, “Why is that it only got paid attention to when a guy said it?” The irony was obvious, he said.

Willis agreed.

“I’m glad (Mauldin) wrote it and glad it’s generating all this conversation,” Willis said. “But why is it that when a male voice is saying it that it’s taken seriously, when women have been talking about it on a regular basis for a long time?”

Mauldin, who teaches technology to fourth- through eighth-graders in a home-schooling program, said he sees examples of sexism in those early grades.

“Girls are intrigued by the class technology projects and are enthusiastic and say they want to sign up for the classes, but fail to do so,” he said. Parents, he said, have told him the girls weren’t signing up because there were so few other girls in the classes.

“So it’s a self-perpetuating cycle. By the time I get to them that is already ingrained,” he said.

Mauldin touches on that in his letter to the editor, addressing the sexism girls often face starting in grade school that continues into their adult lives and professional careers.

“I was not overlooked by teachers who assumed that the reason I did not understand a tough math or science concept was, after all, because of my gender,” he wrote.

Mauldin, who is autistic and suffers from lupus and avascular necrosis of both hips, experienced bullying and teasing based on his disabilities when he was growing up in a small town in Montana – which, he said, is part of what gives him the perspective he has.

Still, he said he felt compelled to speak out after seeing male peers treating female classmates with less respect than their male colleagues.

“When we partnered with other classmates, guys would want to find a group of guys,” he said.

In groups of students, he said, male colleagues would talk exclusively to him, ignoring a female friend sitting beside him, who he considered to be much smarter than himself. Or talk over the women in the group.

“I tried to bring her into the discussion and felt like I was playing interpreter between the two. And not understanding why they’re not understanding. Females have to do a dance to get (to the same place) and that shouldn’t be the case,” he said. “People should see right off the bat that a female student is just as likely as a guy to understand this stuff.”

Mauldin concludes the letter with this: “When I experience success the assumption of others will be that I earned it. So you and I cannot be equal. You have already conquered far more to be in this field than I will ever face.”

Ultimately, he said, he hopes his letter will encourage other men to speak out.

“I hope other men begin acknowledging that the problem exists,” he said.

“It’s so subtle and it’s not one or two big things. It’s a million little subtle things that are going on. But the more we become aware of it the more likely we are to stop doing it,” he said.