Tire changing and women in STEM Anonymous

Monday: “We men are just better than the women.”

And in that moment I zoned back in. Although I later learned that his, the driving instructor's, comment was related to how a male’s body chemistry gives him a better alcohol tolerance, his words indeed set a precedent for the rest of the week.

Tuesday: conveniently enough, every example of bad driving had a female driver

Wednesday: he wouldn’t even let his own wife drive because he didn’t trust her abilities

Thursday: indeed as the week progressed, the teacher’s comments worsened and subsequently, any of my remaining confidence as a new driver diminished.

Friday: we were told that we were going to practice changing a tire.

Although all the women in the class were assured that we needn't know how to do this because we could easily flag someone down, I was still very eager to finally escape the cold confinement of my driver’s ed classroom. The instructor pushed us outside and gave us a few minutes as a group just to see how far we could get on our own. No one moved. Some of the guys had changed a tire before, but they all admitted they didn’t quite remember the exact process so they decided it was best to just wait for the instructor. The girls stood off to the side in a group,...