Psychology is one of a few fields of science and medicine that is not dominated by men; but that's not saying much since it's also one of the fields with the widest pay gap.
Despite the fact that there are more women in the field, the men out-earn those women—sometimes by almost $40k per year for the same education, experience, and job, according to the American Psychological Association.
That's enough for vehicles, downpayments on housing, makes a major difference in student loan repayment and other steps towards financial security, etc. that women won't get simply because they are women.
There's also the prestige to consider. The field is full of women, but all of the fame and notoriety sits with the men - names like Jung, Freud, Pavlov, Maslow, Piaget, Adler ... all men.
We are taught these men's names, but the women tend to be taught as their concepts. Attachment theory, for example, is widely taught and used, but rarely do we hear the name Mary Ainsworth.
Systematically, men in the field of psychology are at the advantage.
But nobody tell this guy:
TikTok user @psychandeducation, whose name is Sarina, uses her account to talk about her life as a psychology student at Columbia University.
In this particular video, Sarina caught a male classmate complaining about how hard it is to be a man in the field.
That class was coding, which many would dismissed and say "oh well that's a tech class not a psych class" but Sarina explained in the comments that data analysis is required for Ph.D students and this coding class was a part of that.
This classmate was particularly despondent over how many women there are :
"It's soo hard. Do you have any idea?"
"In my, like, in the psych field, there’s just like sooooo many women to compete against, and there’s like no guys."
"I just feel like it's really hard, in this field, to be a guy."
Sarinas response, delivered through a snort with her hand over her mouth in disbelief, was to point out that there were only "like 3 girls" in their class.
TikToks response, delivered through speedy keyboards probably also in disbelief, was to activate roast mode.
@psychandeducation/TikTok
@psychandeducation/TikTok
@psychandeducation/TikTok
@psychandeducation/TikTok
@psychandeducation/TikTok
@psychandeducation/TikTok
@psychandeducation/TikTok
@psychandeducation/TikTok
@psychandeducation/TikTok
@psychandeducation/TikTok
@psychandeducation/TikTok
@psychandeducation/TikTok
@psychandeducation/TikTok
@psychandeducation/TikTok
@psychandeducation/TikTok
We don't know how things went for him after this clip, but based on the comments on TikTok, the rest of the conversation probably didn't go in his favor.
@jessicachastain/Instagram
