Imagine this: before you get to sit down and enjoy the dinner that you labored over for hours, you must first serve everyone at the table with you. And when the dinner is complete, you don’t get to relax, rather you have to clean up everyone else’s dishes. Now this may not be in every household, but this is a pretty common occurrence that women deal with at home. Rigid gender norms. 

Have you ever felt pressured to do or not do something because of rigid gender norms? A certain Waltham High School sophomore Liss Carpio has most definitely been there and done that. Her advice? Find someone who underestimates you, and then prove them wrong. She explains during the course selection process, her sister asked her, in reference to the Metal Fab class, “Why are you taking that class? There’s only guys in that class. You might not want to do that because you’re a girl.” Subtle and grand displays of misogyny, culturally accepted prejudice against women, are an everyday occurrence in most women’s lives. In particular, Liss experiences it in the pizzeria that she works at. She’s constantly being disregarded by the guys she works with when it comes to transferring orders with more than a few boxes that are deemed ‘too heavy’.Though this is a small display, she also experiences women telling her that she can’t do certain things because she’s a girl, such as her sister telling her not to take a certain class. This is clear internalized misogyny. Misogynistic beliefs are so common that the people they affect are even spouting them out, not realizing how harmful they are. Shockingly though, Liss feels extremely confident in her male dominated metal fabrication class.

Metal Fabrication is a Career and Technical Education program offered at Waltham High School centered around welding. Liss is the only girl enrolled. Her experience has been, for the most part, positive. She’s working hard on a class that’s providing her with skills she can use later in life. She mentions hoping to break into the welding field by joining her family who also work in this trade. If only other girls could work up the courage, and boys make an encouraging learning environment, to get rid of ridiculous traditions of only boys being in classes such as autobody, carpentry, or metal fabrication. Awkwardness and a sense of isolation are what Liss says accompany partaking in a class with only boys. Being a social person, this can be detrimental to Liss. This stigma that girls aren’t suitable for these classes is just not true. 

Life would have been excruciatingly different had women not shown interest in working in traditionally male dominated fields in the 1940’s. World War II icon Rosie the Riveter is a prime example of who we should be talking about. It’s been proven that women can excel at labor jobs. They carried the country when the men were off at war, but once the men came back, their abilities were forgotten. How come nobody seems to remember that women are suitable for these jobs. It’s not true that CTE courses aren’t applicable for girls. They are. 

There’s always room for improvement in promoting equal opportunities, but Waltham High School has made some advances. By introducing the Exploratory Program where students take every single one of the CTE classes, it’s helped drum up interest from everyone who participates in the Exploratory Program in every CTE class. Though this is great, some suggestions for the school for continuing their progress could be making sure everybody in the freshman class participates in at least one CTE class, to make sure there’s equal interest and equal opportunities. Another suggestion from Liss is that “they shouldn’t just talk about the more ‘womanly’ classes like children’s and families and early education and they might want to talk more about metal fab, carpentry, or auto workshop” 

“Honestly, proving her wrong was mostly… the push I needed to take that class. I honestly am so glad that she [Liss’ sister] did put in her unnecessary commentary on my choices because I really like that class.”