“You Are In Fact Unequal” Engineering Student’s Letter To Women Goes Viral.

In the Engineering field, men and women face the exact same challenges in STEM classes: learning concepts in the classroom and putting them to practice in field experiments, while juggling coursework in physics, math, and electrical engineering.

But they’re still not equal. In the Fall of 2015, Jared Mauldin was at the tail end of his studies as a mechanical engineer at Eastern Washington University, and as he saw it, the differences couldn’t be more clear.

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Women have it harder. And the fact that they’re taking the same classes as, and sometimes earning higher GPAs than, their male counterparts when the deck is already stacked against them – really, he suggests, doesn’t that just make them superior?

jared mauldin letter to the editor
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To the women in my engineering classes:

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?


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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.

In grade school I never had to fear being rejected by my peers because of my interests. 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.


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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.

I have had no difficulty whatsoever with the boys club mentality, and I will not face added scrutiny or remarks of my being the “diversity hireâ€.

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.

“Really, when you look at this letter, I said nothing new. I didn’t say anything that another feminist writer hasn’t said before. The distinguishing factor … happens to be that I am a man. That is a problem,”he said once the letter gained national attention.

Jared’s point causes us to pause and look at the hardships of those around us. Just because you aren’t going through the same thing as someone else, does not make their plight any less important.

Share to spread Jared’s inspiring perspective.

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