International Women's Day

I know this is a bit late, but I've been waaaaaay too busy with school and I feel like this is important!

So International Women's Day happened a few weeks back which is awesome, because women are awesome. I spent that day at this Geology Convention that was happening in downtown Toronto (PDAC). It's a pretty big thing, they take up the whole convention centre and it goes on for the week. International Women's Day happened to be on Student Day.

For those of you who don't know, I'm a huge feminist. I'm on the council for the Women In Science and Women in Physics club at my school, and I'm an advocate for Women in STEM -- meaning I go out to different highschools and attempt to inspire young girls to enter science, engineering, and math.

Anywho. I spent International Women's Day in a humid convention centre being talked at by middle-aged white dudes.

You would think that at this point my male classmates would check in and say, "Wow there's like 500 students in here and like 50 of them are girls." But no. Whatever. It's clear we're a far way off from inspiring women, but I mean who can blame girls for not wanting to be geologists and spend all of their time camping, and canoeing, and taking helicopter rides over mountains...I mean there's no bathrooms in the forest for you to do your hair in? That was sarcasm.

Fast forward a week, and I had this interview with an amazing mining company for a summer job. This mining company is Diavik, and while you don't care I will briefly explain why I'm such a fan girl. They're North America's largest producer of Diamonds, located just outside of the Arctic circle...and they're currently mining on the bottom of a lake. They're quite literally existing under the lake.

As somone who studies Hydrology and Geotechinical Engineering...this is really amazing. And I had a job interview. And I was doing a huge project on them. And I was beyond excited.

The interview went great -- or I thought so. I was even told during the interview that those were "great answers". I didn't get the job.

They were taking 4 students and interviewing 7 and I could all the people I was interviewing against. I knew I was the most qualified given my project, and being the only hydrogeology student. Anyways, one of the kids who also interviewed I had a wee crush on.

So I asked him, a week after the fact when I had licked my wounds and got over the extreme disappointment. And he said that he had already worked there, and he was sorry I didn't get it...and then he said the worst thing....

"I don't know why you didn't get it. They always give hiring preference to girls."

This is the worst thing you can say to someone in my opinion. I mean what the fuck is that? That's like saying that "you got the job because your hair is curly". I got it. People usually say it when they're upset and they go reaching for some reason of why that person was better for you.

When you say that someone got something based on the fact that they're a girl, which is ridiculous and insulting. By saying that you're taking away all their accomplishments and all of their skills and replacing it with their gender. Like saying all you are is a girl. And I mean girls are awesome, but still it's incredibly insulting.

Also, I hate to draw out the number of positions that I don't get because I am a girl. Or how I am not looked at as an equal in the field. How nobody wants to hand me a hammer, or how I'm told to go set up and cook instead of collecting samples.

You could say that my crush on him instantaneously died. I also told him to stop being an ignorant prick.

You are a girl. You are awesome. You are talented. And you are so much more then just a gender.

If you finished reading this, YAY YOU! Leave a comment with a story and I'll do my best to get around to reading and commenting. Although it may take a month. I'm headed into finals.