I often peruse the New York Times opinion online, specifically the ‘Room for Debate’ section. While reading some of the topics discussed, I came across an alarming and interesting statistic regarding Wikipedia; less than a quarter of the users who submit articles are female.

For those of you who live under a rock, Wikipedia is a free encyclopedia online in which users, just like you and I, submit their knowledge of a subject to share with the online community: a tool which has discreetly saved many college kids’ lives over the past few years.

Susan Herring, a professor of information science and linguistics at Indiana University conducted a study that showed fewer women than men reported being too busy to submit information and far fewer women than men reported that a disinterest in the topics discussed isn’t what kept them from submitting articles.

My theory? Academia favors men. In the world of academics, women must work harder and sacrifice more in order to be taken serious. A man is able to make errors and write it off just as easily as he made the errors, however, a women is likely to be harshly condemned.

Linguistics, science, politics and everything in the academic world favors the male gender. It’s a man’s world, and I’m realizing it more and more every

day. The balance, however, is difficult for a woman to gauge.

A desirable woman (by a man’s standard) should be attractive, funny and intelligent in moderation (and none of these traits can surpass that of her male companion or contemporaries). If a woman is too attractive, then her intellectual creditability is invalid, because everything has been handed to her. If she is too funny she is an airhead, and if she is too intelligent, she is cold and boring.

So where do we fit in? How does a woman find her place in academia while still maintaining and excelling in other aspects of a normal, engaging social status? An intelligent, motivated, direct female is often regarded as a bitch around her peers, regardless if it is true.

I often find, especially in the professional and academic world, that when women speak to men, mirroring the language men speak amongst one another, it is met with hostility and resentment. Women are expected to speak a certain way; anything too direct means she’s harsh and off-putting.

The role of women in academia is to be an aid or a second author in a byline. Women are the robins of the academic world. I’m not faulting men entirely for keeping the woman down; women are responsible for this in part themselves.

We have not commanded respect in a manner men find approachable, we preface our convictions apologetically or with a hint of insecurity (i.e. “I’m sorry, but…” or “Don’t be offended, however…”) and we tend to be too consumed with the appearance of how we come across to others rather than the impression our minds, or intellect, imprints on the world.

This is a cry to my fellow females. We have more to offer than being submissive on the arm of powerful men. We are more than fashion magazines and mistresses. It’s time we start becoming a part of history and not just for being the first female to achieve success.

Let’s make the novelty of being the first female something of the past and focus on just being the first person.