# @feministscience on Instagram

- **Type:** Image
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/DcAlhXzjvGF
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/69397899-feministscience-instagram
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/postThumbnails/d73be54626.jpg
- **Posted:** 2026-08-14T05:41:36.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** Feminist Science (@feministscience) — https://gondola.cc/feministscience

## Caption

I know this is controversial but it has to be said. Way too many puff pieces about STEM careers pervading social media. 

If you are a person of color, a woman, or have a disability, then you are at a distinct disadvantage at being promoted in the STEM workforce. You will be paid less, get more work, for less accolades. Decades of literature back this claim. 

50% of women leave tech by 35. 

Future employers will judge your daughter based on her fertility and whether she will leave to have kids. 

Women who do ‘make it’ often lose it if they get married or have kids. If they remain single, they are dumped on with a bunch of extra work and not promoted and likely to be laid off mid career. 

A few make it. I know one woman who worked in engineering for her entire career—until she was laid off at 60 and had to retire because she couldn’t find anything else and her parents were diagnosed with dementia. Her daughter, which she had later in life due to her job, was still in college, so it was a huge financial blow. 

Compound this with the escalating AI crises, late-stage capitalism, layoffs, and prevalence of contract work v. long-term employment, and pressure from overbearing parents, there are serious mental health problems among STEM students

Have them major in what they are passionate about, go to a college that they like the climate in. You only get one life. If you love physics and got a long-term job as a physicist, good for you. I’m happy for you. And I"m not saying that you deliberately ditch school and do nothing but play in a band on a street corner. 

But if you work at a job you hate was suffering through a STEM degree, AP exams, even worth it?

Read more on my #feministsciencesubstack 

https://feministscientist.substack.com/p/do-high-school-students-need-to-go 

#highered #womeninSTEM #womeninengineering #feministscience #stanfordducksyndrome

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## Tags

feministscience, womeninengineering, highered, stanfordducksyndrome, womeninstem, feministsciencesubstack

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