After a professor at Boise State University gave a speech claiming that women should not be recruited to work in engineering, medicine or law, one college student decided to channel her frustration into something positive — and empowering.
In his speech, Yenor said that “every effort must be made not to recruit women into engineering, but rather to recruit and demand more of men to become engineers. Ditto for med school and the law and every trade.”
“Our independent women seek their purpose in life in mid-level bureaucratic jobs like human resource management, environmental protection, and marketing,” he said at another point. “They’re more medicated, meddlesome, and quarrelsome than women need to be.”
Orr says that as she is studying marketing, the speech struck a personal chord with her.
“What do you even say to that, when a professor who’s supposed to be teaching you says, you being in my classroom or you being in the workforce, you are doing less, like are not helping America move forward?” she says. “And that it’s silly for me to go into a career and think that I’ll find a purpose there?”
“That felt so disheartening and so frustrating. I mean, college is so expensive. I invested all this money. And so for someone to say, you will find nothing after this investment, that hurts,” she adds.
Ally Orr.Courtesy Ally Orr
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Yenor went on to double down on his remarks in a video posted on his Twitter account.
“When feminists celebrate the revolutionary anger of modern women, they are applauded. When they celebrate their nastiness, they applaud one another. Things must change if this country is to rebuild the family,” he said in the video.
Neither Yenor nor Boise State University responded to PEOPLE’s request for comment. A university spokesperson previously toldThe Idaho Statesmanthat the professor has a right to free speech. The school has also said in astatementthat Boise State “has a long tradition of supporting women. We continue to do so across the university.”
“I find someone that says, ‘Someone should make a scholarship for these students at Boise State,'” she recalls.
For Orr, it was the perfect way to stand up and say “no.”
To kick things off, Orr sent an email to 600 university staff members, drawing on a very specific line from Yenor’s speech for inspiration.
The subject of the message? “Scholarship for medicated, meddlesome and quarrelsome women.”
She set up aGoFundMein December, and its original goal was $10,000 — which was quickly achieved.
The GoFundMe has now raised over $123K — and Orr has officially brought theWomen in STEM, Medicine, and Law Scholarshipinto existence.
As for Yenor, Orr says she has “nothing to say” to him.
“He’s written books, podcasts, recorded videos about this. There’s nothing I can say that could change his mind,” she says. “But, if I can fund more women, that goes directly against what he thinks so that’s good enough for me.”
Orr says she will keep fundraising open indefinitely and all of the remaining funds will be invested into the scholarship so that it can remain at Boise State University in perpetuity.
source: people.com
