工科女生的自白

I’d bet my 1）graphing calculator that you don’t have many girlfriends that are engineers. It’s not because we’re antisocial， it’s because there aren’t many of us to begin with. Sure， it may seem like a pretty sweet deal to be one of seven girls in a class of 100， but I promise it’s not all it’s 2）cracked up to be.

Let’s start with a day in the life of. Unlike most other college girls， I get taken less seriously if I dress well. Yes， wearing a cute blazer and jeans （or makeup and accessories） actually diminishes how seriously my peers and professors take me. For some reason， certain professors seem to hold it against me that I am a girl going into a seriously male dominated world. However， being taken seriously is seemingly on the bottom of my to-do list when it comes to classes.

For example， this past semester I had one assignment due for each one of my five classes per week. An average assignment is about 5 problems long， making around 25 problems due per week. Not so bad， right？ That is until you take into account the level of difficulty， the amount of time spent and 3）precision required for each section of each problem. Every assignment seems to bring its own unique headache. Four hours， two 4）lattes， and nearly half a pad of engineering paper later， I might have finished half an assignment.

That is， if I had no other commitments and rarely made a mistake.

Forget weeknight TV marathons or $1 pitcher night at the campus bar—the night before an assignment’s due is for nothing other than that assignment. I could go on for hours about the extreme amount of time dedicated to our assigned projects（like the time I spent more hours in the computer lab than in my dorm one week）， or the high expectations we’re held to， but I think you get the picture. Engineering is hard.

It’s not only classes where I receive a 5）lukewarm welcome. I can’t even count how many times I’ve been asked what exactly I do as a civil engineer. “Bridges， buildings， roads， stuff like that，”seems to be my auto-answer， though that barely scratches the surface. I know people at parties or in coffee shops couldn’t care less about hearing my drawn out “it’s really soil 6）cohesion and 7）pile driving techniques” answer， but there’s so much more than meets the eye.

Oh， and bring on those 8）stereotypes. Sure， I laugh at 9）derivative jokes and I carry a pencil sharpener and calculator in my purse most of the time， but not all of them are true. My engineering friends are some of the most personable and funniest people I know. They’re not all stiff and uptight and they don’t only speak in Greek letters. Like any other major， engineers come in all shapes and sizes. Some of them even have girlfriends！ Okay， that was kind of mean， but you get the point.

Someday I’ll be standing on a construction site， wearing Tims， a hardhat and a pencil skirt， doing 10）mental calculations and managing an entire project. Despite how 11）idiosyncratic of a picture that might paint， I’m excited to graduate， dive right in and get my hands dirty. Haha， get it？ I’ll work on a dirty construction site？ No one？ Okay… so maybe engineers aren’t as funny as they think…

So next time you’re sitting in traffic thinking about what you could be doing wherever it is that you’re going， just think about me in the car next to you， calculating how much more efficient the light cycle could be if they just increased the number of lanes so that the capacity would… okay， I promise I’ll stop now.

我敢用我的圖形計算器打賭，大家沒幾個女性朋友是工程師。這么說不是出于反社會心理，而是因為我們系里就沒多少女生。當然了，在一個100人的班里，作為僅有的七名女生中的一員，那看起來可能是件美美的事兒，但我敢肯定，情況可并不都像人們所吹噓的那樣。

讓我們以工程科生涯的一天來開始吧。與大部分其他的大學女生不同，要是我精心打扮，反而更不會被人看在眼里。沒錯，穿著漂亮的外套和牛仔褲（或者化妝、佩戴飾物）其實會削弱同學以及教授們對我的重視度。出于某種原因，有些教授似乎會對我這么個闖進男性主導世界的女孩心生質疑。然而，說到學業(yè)，被人嚴肅看待不過是我的待辦事項清單上最不重要的一點。

打個比方，在過去的這個學期，每一周，我的五門功課都有一項作業(yè)。而平均每項作業(yè)都大概有五個問題那么多，那就是每周都有差不多25個問題。不是太壞，對吧？那是你還沒考慮到每個問題各個部分的難度、時間消耗以及所需的精確性。每項作業(yè)似乎都會帶來一種獨有的頭痛。耗費四個小時，兩杯拿鐵，幾乎半疊工程紙之后，我可能才完成半項作業(yè)。

那是，假設我沒有其他任務，也幾乎沒有犯錯誤的情況。

忘掉工作日晚間的電視馬拉松，或者校園酒吧的“一元狂飲”夜吧——交作業(yè)的前一晚除了作業(yè)就別無他物了。最后的那點時間里，我會連續(xù)好幾個小時都投入到布置下來的項目當中（就像每周我更多地花在計算機實驗室而不是宿舍里的那些時間），或者投入到我們被寄予的厚望之中，但我想你已經(jīng)想象得到那番情景了。……