TikTok

Woman In STEM Goes Viral After Sharing TikTok Of Male Students Interrupting Her

Though the world progresses and things do change, there are some holdouts in society where the concept of male privilege hasn’t made any inroads. One of those places is in STEM, a field dominated by men. The women who do get into these fields have to contend with a lot of unexamined sexism in their male peers. It can be hard to explain what it’s like to be one of the few women in that environment. A 22-year-old student at the University of Iowa named Claire McDonnell has actually caught the experience on camera.

McDonnell is one of four women in her program, which has almost 60 male students, according to Buzzfeed. Apparently, the ladies sometimes commiserate over how badly they’re treated in the program by their colleagues, because she decided to start recording a Zoom call she was having with her partners on a commercial underwriting group project. When she watched it again later, she decided she wanted more people to see what it was like, and posted it to TikTok.

In the TikTok, McDonnell gets interrupted over and over and over. At a certain point, it feels like the guys are waiting for her to talk just so they can start speaking.

https://www.tiktok.com/@cleasel/video/6877661811206900997

She gets annoyed:

It gets funny:

It gets sad:

Then annoying again:

Then she just goes Full Joker:

“Some of us girls have the top standings in the program, and no matter how experienced we are, none of the men seem to take us seriously,” McDonnell told BuzzFeed.

“When I recorded that, it was just funny because I’ve worked in commercial underwriting for years, and [the assignment] was the same thing I did in that role,” she added. “I have the most experience [out of] anyone.”

The comments on the TikTok are full of people saying how familiar this scenario is, with some trying to coach McDonnell on how to deal with these guys in future. For instance, continuing to talk no matter what, pointing out they’ve interrupted, asking, “Can I finish my sentence?” etc.

   

 

While others say that the problem isn’t with McDonnell, it’s with these boys:

McDonnell may end up taking this advice to heart, but she told Buzzfeed that she has advice for guys who are seeing this and wondering if they’re part of the problem.

“You can’t change the way they view women overnight, but stepping back and listening. … If I have something to say, just listen,” she said. “And not just listen, but implement what I and other women are saying.”

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