Long rant alert. As a single mum with one daughter, I brought her up to believe she could be anything she wanted to be. She had to overcome terrible setbacks in her life, but despite all, she persevered and got to read her chosen subject, physics at uni. Her year comprised 282 boys and 5 girls. From day one, it seemed the majority of the boys were of the geeky type, who lack social skills and do not understand boundaries. She and her friend were daily subjected to gawking and downright obscene suggestions. They opted to ignore the behavior. In labs they would ask a perfectly reasonable question of the lecturer. He would roll his eyes and walk away to a group of boys who would ask the exact same question. He would then respond by sitting down and discussing it for half an hour with them. In her first year a boy asked if he could look at her assignment to see what was required. He plaguerised it making some changes but was rumbled. He'd got 52%, she got 81%. He had lost marks where he had tweeked it to sound like his own work. They were both called before a board and penalized by both behind dropped to 49%, meaning he lost3% and she lost 32%. He cheerfully agreed that it was fair enough. She did not but through the entire meeting, none of the board acknowledged her, made eye contact with her and when she attempted to speak, the spoke over her. She was furious so went to her personal tutor. When asking his advice on how to deal with it, she was told she could complain, but the most likely outcome would be that she would lose her remaining marks and her the rest of her time there would become very difficult. In other words, put up and shut up. Rightly or wrongly she did, intimidated by the patriarchal set up. The sexism continued in insidious and overt ways through her entire degree. Now she is at the end and despite all, when she got results back yesterday, looks like she may be on the path to a first or 2:1. The results came through whilst she was in the library with 30 male students. She's the only girl left. One announced very loudly that she only got the marks she did as she was a girl and they'd felt sorry for her. It was the final straw and after a cutting reply she turned heel and stormed out but wept tears of rage all the way home. The world needs more scientists but the bastards have finally broken my strong girl and she is swearing she will never work in physics. After all she's endured, it makes me so angry. I can't believe that after all these years of fighting for equality, our daughters still have to experience these attitudes. We may have the right to fight discrimination, but if we are in a male field, it can ruin our professional lives and why the hell should we have to? Sorry this is so long.