Sexism in STEM

From one of our Lovely Lady Agents in the Field:

"Anyhow, this is kind of random, but a lot of women who graduate with degrees in Chemical Engineering really aren't all that qualified in comparison to  men; even women with PhDs. I know this probably sounds sexist, which I know you don't care, but this is a serious problem. I think it's more sexist to make men do the real work to become Chemical Engineers, while many women can make excuses and do half of the work. 

Women who go through Chemical Engineering programs tend to get special treatment because there's so few women that go into that field. They are especially coddled if they happen to have female professors in the department (they tend to want to push more women through). They are held to different standards and routinely are passed through courses that they really shouldn't be passing. I've also personally seen women who literally do no work towards their thesis or dissertation research projects, but are able to ride on the coattails of the department or other Master's and Doctoral candidates to get through. Usually some poor bastard gets stuck doing their work for them. Often they can find a way to shirk their duties in terms of presenting their research to different conferences and committees. The abuse is rampant. I also knew a girl a few years ago who got a Master's, but she was able to earn it because her cousin did all of her homework and tutored her for every exam. Another classmate's father was a professor at the university. 

 So what you have happening is many women in Chemical Engineering are not qualified to be engineers and unfortunately, they have other people's lives on their hands when they get jobs. Also, they make the women who are very knowledgeable and serious engineers look bad as a result. I can't tell you how many utter moronic women you can meet at a Chemical Engineering conference. Although it is slightly better than at a Women's Studies conference, haha. It's really astounding considering they're in such a cerebral field. Take this for what you will, but this was my experience going through the program and my boyfriend's experience getting his Master's in Chem. Eng. a few years ago.  I can tell you with quite a bit of confidence that this issue is spread among most universities. Consider all the affirmative action and liberal BS that tend to originate in universities and then is applied to their programs...it's really horrible and also in the long run, doesn't work in anyone's best interest.

Now my experiences have been a bit different.  The women I knew in STEM fields earned it, but this was over 15 years ago AND I was not an engineering major.  Additionally, I knew women in the capacity of student, not job hunter, applicant or employee.  Mayhaps some of our Engineering Deputized Economists can fill us in as to just how common this is.