I, like many other millions of 20-somethings, reached the lifetime achievement of college graduation in May. I, also like many other millions of people around the world, found myself fully educated and fully unemployed. My search for jobs has been ongoing since about April, but it wasn’t until I had actually walked across that stage on May 7 that it became my No. 1 priority. I have spent the last almost two months researching agencies in my area and trying to pinpoint the position that would be a perfect fit for me.

I had the opportunity to go for a second interview with a company on Thursday and I found myself in a situation I had never been faced with before: I was surrounded by men. In my past experiences with internships in my field of study, public relations, I was almost always surrounded by women. For whatever reason, PR seems to be a more female-focused field, something that I did not have a problem with other than the fact that I was just another woman looking for a job in the PR track. As I sat at the conference table at this digital marketing agency, I was surrounded by four men and one woman. It was a scenario which I had never found myself in before. The interview took about an hour and, at the end, I was faced with the man who had conducted my primary phone interview. He asked me if I had any questions for him and I asked the typical questions about how he liked the company. Then I asked a question that hadn’t ever crossed my mind in an interview before. I asked him what the male to female ratio was at the agency, and if it was a noticeable difference. I felt almost awkward to be asking a question that, to be completely honest, would not have swayed me away from liking the company, but I also felt that it was something I was genuinely interested to hear. In the end, he told me that the ratio was almost equal to which I explained the meaning behind my question.

As I reflected on my interview, I thought back to my last year in school. I had started engaging in more pro-feminist conversations, conversations that actually had substance as opposed to my typical “who is Taylor Swift dating right now” chatter. I talked about experiences with these women that I hadn’t ever considered to be particularly gender biased, but upon reflection actually were, and I listened to their opinions and the things they’d learned. I know that a lot of the articles that I write for the Odyssey are female empowerment focused, but even with that said I know I have so much more to learn about the feminist movement as a whole before I could ever claim myself an expert. These women though - that I spent an occasional Wednesday evening with discussing the shortcomings of the world around us, and even the unexpected triumphs, whom I still share a Facebook page with even though we are all graduated - helped mold me into a human who pays attention to things like the gender ratio in an office. Because if that office is equal, that is great, but if that office is not equal, then I would be lucky to accept the challenge to prove what I am worth. The Caroline from last year at this exact time would never have considered asking a question focused on gender in an interview, but the Caroline of this year asked the question naturally, and I owe that to the Wonder Women.