I’m sick of people asking me what my major is because I get the same thing every time — wide eyes and a smile, accompanied with something like, “Wow, that’s not easy.” And some go on to make some comment about how tough it must be, especially since I’m a female studying computers.

Yes, I’m a girl. Yes, I’m majoring in Computer Science. And yes, I’m sick of the pity parties that people throw in their heads when they piece these two things together.

I don’t need people feeling bad for me because I’m a female in a male-dominated field. In my opinion, this whole “male-domination” issue shouldn’t even exist. Why are people worrying about this gender divide if computers is what’s bringing us all together?

I do understand if some girls feel more comfortable studying with other girls, and I’m fine with the effort being made to bring more girls to tech events so that they can interact with everyone else interested in coding and technology.

But what I don’t understand is these exclusive female groups being made to bring women together because they feel like they need to stick together as they’re surrounded by a sea of men. Thus, I see them exclusively studying together, barely interacting with the opposite gender, and constantly complaining about the lack of females in the field. Honestly, the creation of these female groups are worsening the situation because females on the fence about studying Computer Science will continue to see little gender diversity, for a lot of these women in technology groups do not do enough to encourage interaction with the rest of the hacking community.

We’re all studying something that we are passionate about, and if we’re all interested in computers, then that’s the one thing that should bring us together. I’m not saying that women in technology groups shouldn’t exist. All I’m saying is that instead of focusing on bringing women together, they should focus more on interacting more with the community as a whole.