S.T.E.M. is becoming increasingly more popular—that’s a fact. With new technologies constantly emerging, it can be hard to stay away from the action. That, and the fact that we are becoming more progressive as a society, has contributed to more females taking part in male dominated activities. This is amazing! As a female that also loves to take part in science, technology, engineering, and math, I would feel much more comfortable walking into an equal robotics room without feeling any judgement.

But that’s not the case—not yet, anyway.

With so many males dominating the robotics program at my school, teachers and students alike tend to treat girls differently. From making special “girls teams” to finding the need to mansplain everything, there is always a way to make girls feel “less than” or simply stupid. Most of the time, the intent isn’t to harm anybody, but this topic is talked about so little that mistakes happen quite often.

For example, three other girls and I were approached by my robotics teacher. He was interested in the topic of a “girl’s team”. Although it made me uncomfortable that, yet again, we were being evaluated based on our gender, I decided to see it through. But, when he said that the judges might look at us differently because we were an all girls team, I couldn’t allow myself to be on that team.

If the pairing was solely based on skill, I would be fine. But the mention of how our gender could provide us some sort of handicap was against my values. The movement of “Women in S.T.E.M.” is not about raising girls higher than men, giving them an advantage, and using their gender as a way to rally points. It’s about showing women that you are just as capable, equal and ready for the same tasks that men do. It’s about showing the world that we are the same, and we can do the same job just as good, or even better.

To me, equality is not putting a female up on a pedestal for doing the same job as a man. Instead, recognize her for her accomplishments. If you wouldn’t praise a man for being on an all men’s team, then don’t do the same for women. A better way to show support is to look at everyone as if they were genderless. Look at their skill, their talents. Then judge them based on their knowledge.

There is a lot we can do as a society to be more welcoming, but sharing this new opinion is a good first step. Many people think they are helping when they group all of us girls together, and so on. But now you know what is actually helpful, and what can be harmful. I hope this encourages everyone to try harder for a better, inclusive future.