THE PRIVILEGE OF BEING OBLIVIOUS: Some working environments are too uncomfortable to be ignored

摘要

When discussing how to attract more women to engineering, it is often said that women don't want to "just focus on the tech stuff." They want to "do humanitarian work that makes a difference in the world." But in my teenage years, I would have vastly preferred to "just focus on the tech stuff." I wanted to choose the privilege of being oblivious and keeping my head down and immersing myself in the beauty - the sheer beauty! - of STEM for STEM's sake. I didn't become an electrical-computer engineer to work on educational technology or hearing aids. As my former roommate put it, "I just geek out about nerdy stuff, OK?"