Uber has become a popular means of transportation within the past few years, especially among Millennials. However, after Susan Fowler, a software engineer, revealed her last year at Uber in a personal expose, the company has come under fire for the way sexual harassment and sexism was and is handled. For some women who have pursued STEM fields, this is nothing new, but this specific case has led to some people boycotting Uber because of Fowler's detailed story that has frustrated many readers. Not only that, but after the incredible success of Hidden Figures, a film about remarkable women in STEM, the emphasis on gender equity within STEM fields has been at the forefront of a lot of conversations this year.

Attending Purdue, a school well known for its engineering and STEM fields, 24.5% of the 8,705 undergraduate engineering students are women. Of these women in engineering, they come from different backgrounds and share different experiences, whether good, bad, encouraging, or discouraging. After reading about this Uber incident, I decided to interview five of my friends who are in engineering or STEM-related to fields to see what their experiences have been like so far while at Purdue. Below are four interviews from different women in STEM at Purdue.

Maia - Junior

"There aren't that many women going in to engineering and there haven't been for a while. So when you go and you work in these engineering jobs it's really male dominated and it's going to continue to be a problem until more women go into engineering. But many end up leaving the field because it's really like a boy's club, you have all these men and it's not really a friendly culture for women so I think that's why a lot of them leave.

I'm in mechanical engineering, so it's about fifteen percent women, which is one of the smaller ratios throughout the engineering school. I've had a lot of classes where I'm the only girl in them and the culture and energy is a lot different when you're with a lot of guys all the time. It's a lot colder and the energy is a bit more aggressive, but I knew that going in. I'm used to it.

I haven't experienced a lot of women in my field. Growing up, my father is a chemical engineer and my mother is a social worker so I was always raised in a really feminist household and always encouraged to do whatever I wanted to do, and I always had an interest in science and math because of my dad. So I think that's what's encouraged me to go into engineering. As far as my experiences here, I haven't faced a lot of discrimination or anything like that. I'm very cognizant that there's not that many women so I always I try to project the best version of myself because I know people make generalizations based on their experiences, so I don't want to give anyone a reason that female engineers are less qualified or have any negative characteristics that you wouldn't want in an engineer because of their experiences with me.

If you want to do engineering, you really want to have to do it. If you're discriminated against then you really have to speak up and keep speaking until someone listens and somebody addresses the issues that you're facing. I think it really helps to support other women in the field and you have to realize that the success of other women in the field doesn't take away from your success or self worth, and it really helps to have that support system as well because they know what you're going through."

Abby - Sophomore

"I haven't really had any bad experiences in my major specifically. It's Environmental and Ecological Engineering, and it's a majority of women, so I feel like we've been treated pretty equally. One of my professors, who is an environmental engineer, I talked to them about the major because I wasn't sure what I wanted to do and she said the job prospects are really good and she had been really successful. So that was really encouraging that she had done so well and the job growth for triple E's is so large. I think it being environmental engineering it's kind of less technical and less physics stuff, and more cheimstry and working with others based, which is kind of stereotypically what women are better at. I think more women care about the environment as opposed to men too.

I'm an ambassador for the triple E program and one thing I did was talk to junior women in high school looking at going into engineering so I talked to them about what kind of classes they would take and what being a student is like, and they all seemed pretty interested. I would definitely like to be that voice of encouragement and my advice is to try your hardest and don't let anyone bring you down, and do what you want to do.

I'm nervous about putting myself out there, like if I feel like I'm not good enough or qualified enough for a job, but then I think I'm going to one of the top universities for engineering so I just have to chill. I'm excited to get out there and make a difference, though, and help the environment in this political climate."

Mary Rose - Sophomore

"I did transition from engineering to engineering technology, from both sides of it, in the engineering part there was definitely a lot less women in the classes. I was in a large, hundred-person and there were maybe three or four other girls. I didn't notice that thing right away because I just don't notice those things, but in engineering technology, I have realized that there are more women on the technology side of things, and that was more encouraging. It's not that I was discouraged before but now it's like I'm more comfortable and it's more normal.

That being said I don't really get discouraged by men. I was raised with no sisters so having boys around has just been the norm. It does feel like they're talking more towards the masculine side of things. Not to be stereotypical, but one of my classes right now, the professor talks mainly about doing service engines and manual work. I've worked on cars before so I kind of know what he's talking about, but he's talking about some crazy stuff that you barely see women working on, so it's weird in that sense, but overall it's not terrible.

I'm a little nervous about what I want to do personally, because what I want to do is the big heavy lifting job that has been stereotypically for men, but that's what really excites me and it's what I really want to do. So I'm worried that employers will be like this is for a man's work, but I'm up for the challenge, and I know that if I can show them that I can do this and that they would be a lot more comfortable with it.

If you're a woman in STEM, don't be afraid. I took a welding class, and there was only one other girl, and it was really encouraging to hear the professor say that women should not only go out and pursue things that are stereotypically for men, but that they're usually a lot better at it. He looked at my welds and said I did really great, like a lot of women are but unfortunately they feel like they aren't, but I guess I've defied the odds."

Natasha - Freshman

"The outreach programs are really big here, like they tell you that they really want to encourage women to go into engineering. But it still seems like there is some kind of bias though, like it doesn't all blow up at once but it's the little things that you kind of notice, like the little comments that someone makes. The first time that happened to me was in my engineering class and they put us into groups where we had to build a robot, but it kind of just turned out that by the end of it the guys were doing a lot of the coding and building, and the other girl and I had become like the secretaries and took notes. I think one positive thing that comes out of that is you're forced to confront people about that, which I think is a good skill to have. In that case, I don't think they were trying to make us feel like that, so we talked to them about it and changed, which is just another step in the right direction.

I think just in general at a big STEM school, you will definitely see that, like even within my freshman year. It's just the little things that kind of build up, and I think the closer and closer you are to working in the industry you might be paying more attention to that and heard of more things, so you're more tuned to pick out those things when they do happen to you. I think it's a type of thing that at the same time, when it's happening, it's important to have those outreach programs to encourage women to go into STEM, but the environment itself needs to start changing and making progress in that sense. I think it's something that everyone has to come together to work for."