Throughout history, education has been designed to help children find their place in society. Most early education meant that a child learned a trade as an apprentice; therefore, education was separated by gender. Women taught women and men taught men. After the enlightenment, there was a push to change these ideals; a push to offer both men and women the same education. However, progress was very slow in this area. Many people believed that by educating women the very fabric that held society together would fall apart.

Men and women are educated together today. But is the classroom truly equal? Many would answer no.

Here is some hard data:

Women did not begin to attend college at the same rate as men until 1980. Harvard opened its doors in 1636, but the first college did not start admitting women until nearly 200 years later. It wasn't until the 1970s that legislation was passed to ensure women the same educational opportunities as men. Chemistry class has accounted for 66% of all sexist incidents in education. When asked, 73% of women felt they had faced discrimination in education based on their gender, only 13% of men felt the same. (Data found in Women in American Society by Virginia Sapiro)

It is important to understand that education beings at home. So many girls, before they even start school, will believe that they can not do the same things boys can. This can be detrimental to a girls potential. Encouraging young girls to strive for their passions is key to development of confidence that they can achieve their dreams.

So what is it about being a woman means that we are inherently bad at math, or science? The answer is nothing. Women are discouraged at an early age in these subjects due to lack of differential teaching and people's conscious or unconscious sexist treatment of women in education.

Treating all students the same can squander potential because men and women do think about things differently. For example: Specialists in computer science (one of the major male dominated fields) have found that men and women often use different routes of thinking to solve the same problems. Therefore, if computer science teachers only teach one way, many students (usually women) will be at a greater disadvantage. This means that if women were equally represented in this field that perhaps our technology would be very different because a woman helped create it. A lot of people think it is a compliment when they tell a women, "you think like a man," but maybe it is time that many fields of study realize that thinking like a woman is a good thing.

Women have fought a hard battle to get to where we are today. The right to be educated; to be recognized as a human being capable of intellectual thought is something women before us had to fight to prove. This is why when I see women in classrooms with a glazed look on their face, like they couldn't care less about what a professor is trying to teach them, it frustrates me. Many women, even today, would die to be in those seats listening to those same lectures while you are watching the clock, hoping the professor will end the class early. Your education is a privilege that many women fought for you to have.

Be grateful and do not let anyone discourage from doing or studying something you are passionate about.