- Whenever I would attend classes,
my professors would make snide remarks,
"Oh, we think it's cute that you're here,"
"Oh, it's wonderful that someone that looks like you
"thinks you can be a critical thinker or a problem solver."
- Hi, I'm Shraya.
I'm a senior software engineer at BuzzFeed.
- Hi, my name is Brianne C. Martin,
and I am an advanced manufacturing engineer
for an automotive manufacturing company.
- I actually started
learning computer science when I was in high school.
I had an elective open,
and my parents suggested I take a computer science course
instead of an art class.
It kind of just clicked,
and I realized that it was something
that I really liked doing.
And it came naturally to me.
In college, I just decided to take it
as my major after taking a bunch of classes
and realizing that it seemed like a field
that I wanted to get into.
- So I actually got really interested in engineering
because my mom, had she known what engineering was,
was actually very inclined.
She was very good at math and science.
I was always very fascinated by math and science
because it was the one thing that challenged me.
I had to work a little harder,
and once I got it, it just was a sense of accomplishment
that nothing else really gave.
My love for math and science and the application of
the whole world around us really got me intrigued,
especially in mechanical engineering,
to which I ended up going to Marquette University
a thousand miles away from home down in south Texas.
- Even in college, I was one of maybe five women
in computer science in classes of like 200.
- I was only one of two Hispanic female engineers.
Whenever I would attend classes,
my professors would make snide remarks,
"Oh, we think it's cute that you're here,"
"Oh, it's wonderful that someone that looks like you
"thinks you can be a critical thinker or a problem solver."
And it's just kind of something I've gotten used to.
- Someone who I one time worked with,
he wouldn't let me type.
He was my partner on this project,
and he just kept pulling the laptop away
and just doing all the work and be like,
"Oh, you're too slow."
That happened a few times with different people.
- As a tooling engineer,
I would get called to the assembly line
any time they had an issue putting something together
or it didn't fit right.
I'd go down to the line, I was like,
"Hey, I heard there was an issue,"
to which the response I received was,
"Well, we actually called an engineer."
So I ended up having to play it off a little
with a joke and saying,
"Oh well, sorry I didn't wear my engineer hat today,
"but I promise I'm a girl."
My fellow coworker would go and say,
"Oh hey, I'm your engineer,"
they would never get questioned.
I was very hurt because
it was something I had worked for really hard.
Here I am to help and serve,
and the whole reason I became an engineer
was to help solve problems.
And yet, these people question my ability in order to do so.
- When I was at my first job,
I asked for some technical feedback one time.
I had a manager who
gave me a bunch of really soft skills things,
like "Maybe you should clean your desk
"or keep your desk less cluttered,
"people perceive you negatively because of that."
There were a lot of people who worked there
whose desks were also cluttered.
A lot of them were male.
I don't think that they ever got that kind of feedback.
I came out of that meeting very upset.
I was just like, I want some technical feedback.
I want someone to help me improve,
and all I'm getting is, "You should clear your desk."
- In the engineering industry,
a lot of times I'll get feedback that I'm too aggressive,
that my e-mails are too direct,
that if I get upset or tell someone I'm disappointed in them
it automatically goes into, why are you being emotional,
don't get upset,
when in reality it's I have a high expectation
and this is what I'm asking to be met.
- I had just given a talk and I was at an after-party,
and a colleague approached me and told me
that I didn't do well on my talk.
He had been like, "Oh, that was pretty bad."
I was taken aback and it was weird because
I also had gotten a lot of feedback
that the talk was really great.
It just seemed like he was trying to neg me
or trying to talk down to me.
It was inappropriate.
It made me feel weird about giving another talk.
Only recently, once I came to BuzzFeed did I
kinda gain back that confidence that I'm good at speaking.
I can do this.
It's just weird because that one experience
still sticks with me
and makes me feel less confident sometimes.
- So on a trip for an international business issue
that we had going on,
we flew to France to support a customer.
As we even just got on the plane at the airport,
my fellow coworkers thought it was funny
to start saying, "Oh, we're so glad we have Brianne here
"to be able to make our sandwiches and take care of us."
They were trying to push some buttons,
up until a point where it got a little hostile,
to where they would say, "Oh, carry my bag,"
"Oh, I need you to do this,"
or "Hey, would you mind wiping my face for me?"
Then it went a step further
where we're actually with our French coworkers.
Some of the mechanics asked to go
get cigarettes or whatever in the nearby town,
so I offered to drive them.
It took a little longer than expected,
and on our way back, I started getting text messages
that were saying like, "Oh, Brianne's taking too long,
"she must have been being tossed around."
Something that's so personal to me is
I have actually experienced sexual abuse,
so making a joke about me being taken advantage of,
especially around my French coworkers,
was something really upsetting.
It took an escalation.
It didn't just happen out of nowhere.
It started with these simple jokes
and then became something that was absolutely atrocious.
- One piece of advice that I have is
find the other women who are in the STEM field.
I think having some type of support system,
it's kinda nice for even those microaggressions that happen
where you just need someone to double check.
Did I just hear this right or am I overreacting in this way?
Having that kind of sounding board is really important.
- So my advice, if you're interested in STEM or engineering,
don't be scared.
Anything worthwhile is gonna be worth a fight.
Don't doubt your own self, your own skillset, your ability.
You can learn any and all skills,
so bring your own self to the table,
whatever personality strengths you have,
it makes a huge difference and we need you here in industry.