Nobody Warned Me About How Hard It Is To Be A Woman In This World

Nobody warned me that my professor could one day refuse to supervise my project because he thinks girls don’t work as hard as boys. No one told me that I would have bosses and coworkers in the tech field constantly telling me that women are just naturally not good with tech—and that every day I would have to put extra effort to prove that I am as good with technology as any other guy in the office.

No one told me that some people out there still perceive women as unequal and as if they’re lesser and weaker. They didn’t warn me that guys would be drooling all over me and telling me how amazing I am but how this behavior would change when some of them get completely threatened by me and feel like I am competing with them or intimidating them.

I wasn’t aware of the pink taxes and the fact that as a woman, I will always have to pay more for the same products men use. They didn’t warn me that I sometimes have to make extra effort to make the guy in front of me look me in the face while talking to me rather than looking at other parts of my body.

They didn’t tell me that I have to defend myself all the time while reacting to any situation because people might ask me if my reaction is because of “my time of the month” instead of taking me seriously. Many times people will relate your reactions and your venting to your hormones instead of taking what you’re saying on a more important note.

They didn’t tell me that so many things that women experience and go through would be taboos, and women wouldn’t be able to talk about them so freely. I thought that the long history of our ancestors fighting for our rights would lead us to a world where we wouldn’t have to go through this fight anymore. Yet despite all the progress that has happened, we still face so much pressure and inequality every day. And the worst part is many of us weren’t aware that this fight was still going on and that all that our ancestors have done is an ongoing battle that we have to be part of every day.