being a good girl hurts - Blog - Athemath
Women face unique obstacles in math contests. We know what it’s like being the only girl in the room, at contest after contest. It’s isolating and demotivating. And because of this, we’re missing out on the incredible opportunities offered by math contests. I spent my six years of elementary school life in a girls’ school, and now I’m in my sixth year in a high school[1] where the girl to boy ratio is 1:4. (In my class, the ratio is 1:7.) Truthfully, I wish I had close female friends. But finding people I click with is hard enough on its own. When there are few girls in my immediate field of interaction and even fewer in my fields of interest[2], the electrostatic interactions are too weak for bond formation to be energetically favourable it feels like there’s an insurmountable energy barrier to forming close bonds with other girls. One of my earliest experiences being the only girl was when I did well in a national science olympiad[3] for fifth graders and was later selected for its i