I’ve definitely noticed this. The problem with teaching girls that it’s cute to be scared is that it discourages them from taking risks later in life.

Every time statistics come out about women being underrepresented in STEM fields, politics, as CEOs (to name a few), one of the biggest counter arguments is that “women CAN be these things. There’s no law saying women can’t be a part of Congress”.

But sometimes going to graduate school/running for office/applying for a new position can be risky. In general, men are encouraged to take these risks more than women.

Personally, I had a supervisor discourage me from applying for a position in another department because “you don’t know what the people are like. What if they’re hard to get along with? You don’t know anyone.”

I went anyway. And I ended up making two of my close friends there, so I’d say the people were nice enough 😂