Journal 3

As an international asian woman studying in the United States, intersectionality has played a large role shaping my experience throughout my undergraduate years. It did not really shape my experiences from my K-12 years because I grew up in a relatively homogenous culture whereby the people that I was surrounded with in school were largely heterosexual Asian people. Heteronormativity was heavily enforced in my K-12 years, and so the intersectionality of my identity never really influenced or shaped my experiences in K-12. However, when arriving for my undergraduate university, I realized that I no longer belonged in the dominant culture and majority of the demographic. I was now considered an asian woman studying computer science in my school.

As a woman in STEM, I could visibly see the gender divide in all my classes. My classes were majority male with most of the male identifying people speaking up and raising their hands to ask questions. As an asian woman, I was generally very quiet in class because I felt the enforced social pressures around me and did not feel like I had the ability to speak up. I did not feel confident at all in my abilities as a programmer, even though I was doing just as well as my male counterparts in class. Navigating this situation throughout my undergraduate years often felt frustrating because although women were encouraged in my school to pursue stem fields, I didn’t really feel the support I needed to gain the confidence to move through it. Interning at various software engineering companies, I also found that the industry was largely male-dominated.

As I think about anti-oppression education, I wish to be able to empower women to feel confident to go into stem fields and be able to progress through it. One issue that I am facing is that these oppressive forces are already so embedded in our school structures and education system that it seems impossible to change. It seems like men will always be dominating in this field regardless of how many women are interested in pursuing a stem career. Thinking about this, I hope to center my future work around empowering women.