A few months ago, I wrote two articles that are necessary to reference in this week’s piece: “#ILookLikeAnEngineer” and “But it Doesn’t Matter What I Think;” the first about a viral case of cyber discrimination and how women in engineering will never fit any certain mold and the latter about tolerance and respect.

To be completely honest, I’m agitated that I’m connecting to another viral message, this time to a male engineering student’s newspaper article on why his female classmates aren’t his equals as they overcome more obstacles and discrimination in order to get to the same place, and to something that I experienced just last week in my lab class.

To start, I’d like to also include how nine out of 10 conversations go when someone asks me about my experience at NCSU.

“What’s your major?”

"Aerospace Engineering."

“Oh, how do you like that guy-to girl-ratio?” (Stares off into non-existing camera as if I’m on "The Office.")

(What I actually say) "It doesn't bother me."

But why should I, or others, care about how many females there are, or aren’t, in my classes?

Jared Mauldin, a senior in mechanical engineering at Eastern Washington University, sent a letter to the editor of his university’s newspaper after he saw how his female peers were treated and realized that women and men in STEM fields are not equal. The first I saw of this was when it was posted on a student social media site, where students were providing input and responses freely, saying things including several protesting comments like, “this doesn’t happen,” or they just mocked it by saying, “he’s trying to hit that,” and of course a few females providing brutally honest accounts of things their classmates and peers have said that they’ve become used to hearing, or that they’ve been forced to get past. We’ve been groomed to think women are weak because there is strength in numbers, and for females in STEM fields, the numbers just aren’t there yet.

Sometimes, when there is a minority in an academic program as competitive and strenuous as some STEM fields, that’s a reflection of the capabilities of the rest of the population to which the minority belongs; the belief that there is strength in numbers. If there are fewer women, the women have a disadvantage or are less capable. If there are more Asians, it must be because Asians are just better in math and science, right? And since there are more males in engineering, they’re just smarter than women, right? I wish I could convey sarcasm right now, but no, and we’re all tired of the stereotyping.

I never cared enough to look into the numbers, until this week, after I was in lab and the following conversation took place.

Student A: “Nice shoes, they look pretty goofy with those socks though.”

Student B: (Glances down at his above-knee shorts, high socks and loafers, shrugs.) "It’s not like there are actual girls in here, not in engineering at least.” (Laughs with student A, until the lab group of four red-faced males look at me to see if I was paying attention.)

I felt as if I were the size of an ant. I was so embarrassed. I just felt like I did not belong and I’m not even sure why. I could care less what this classmate, who I’d hardly noticed before then, thought. I was embarrassed because I was dismissed as a joke, as if I weren’t sitting four feet away, but not only because he said it, he had no issue speaking it and I wasn’t the only female in the lab. My heart sank into my stomach and I was absolutely ready to leave. Should I have been upset? Should someone have said something, or was there even anything to stand up for?

I’d say no, I shouldn’t be upset, if only I hadn’t gotten so used to, but tired of, hearing people talk about the “kind of girls” in engineering. We’re either actually low-quality people or they’re just too intimidated to interact with intelligent life.

Or, how about this one that I experienced today.

Student C: “You should apply online to (name of heavily pursued aerospace company).”

Me: “I don’t think I’d be a competitive applicant, and my GPA doesn’t fit their required application GPA.”

Student C: “Just let them know you’re a female in engineering, it really does make a difference. They probably won’t even look at your GPA.”

If you’re reading this and identify with Student B or C, then this is all I have to say to you.

You understand that I work just as hard as you do, right? If I receive an opportunity it is because I pursued it and was qualified, and if I don’t, then someone more qualified than me did and I do not have a problem admitting that, so why do you? Start bettering yourself and quit coming up with excuses.

And since you work better with numbers than wise-words, I’d like to offer some data for you to analyze.

As a student in the Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering (MAE) department at a massive research university, according to the enrollment data provided on the university website for last spring, I was one of 1,457 students.

As a female in the MAE department, I am one of 167 female students enrolled in either undergraduate or graduate programs within the MAE department, meaning that females make up roughly 11.5 percent of MAE.

According to NCSU’s College of Engineering website, as of May 2015, there were more than 9600 students enrolled within different programs in the college. 167 (females in both graduate and undergraduate programs of MAE) to 9600 (approximate total students in the COE) is 1.74 percent representation for females of MAE.

As a student in Aerospace Engineering, according to the website data, I was one of 256 students (60 grad and 196 undergrad working on campus not including distance education). Of students who entered the aerospace program together, there are five females, and none of us are the same; we all appreciate different areas and aspects of our majors, we all participate in different groups and organizations, and none of us could ever be labeled as typical. Since I don’t know for a fact how many females are in the other courses, and the department website doesn’t provide enrollment data on females solely in Aerospace Engineering, it’s not unreasonable to suspect that the percent of women in aerospace is even smaller than that of MAE.

Maybe the interest isn’t there, maybe it’s competitive and difficult, or maybe somewhere along the line the potential engineers were taught that it isn't attractive to ask how things work, or like cars, or rockets.

This is where you start telling me about affirmative action and how companies have to hire minorities, including women.

But do they hire just any women? No, they hire women who are competitive employees, who have the necessary skills to complete the job. If you think I had a better chance of getting hired than you, then you need to step up your game, because you weren’t considered as qualified as myself, or any of the males you were up against. Ouch.

There may be less of us, but that doesn’t make us any less able or strong, and someday, when we’re walking into the same job interview, you will realize that. If you think that me wearing a dress to an interview makes me standout and more likely to get a job, then maybe you should follow my lead. Until then, I hope you’re never in a situation where you feel like you don’t belong, regardless of how hard you work or how hard you try, and because of something you have no control over, because it actually makes people question their worth and value, and that is so unfortunate.

Oh, yeah, and I'm an actual girl.