[king_jester]

> I believe that choosing to limit one's role models by gender is a problem.

No one is talking about limiting to one kind of role model. Indeed, since women in STEM are not as represented as men, it may be limiting to not allow a student to seek out a role model who is a woman as they may never encounter one by happenstance. Having a role model you identify with, esp. with a trait that is a minority in some group, is one of the ways people can counteract imposter syndrome.

[JohnHaugeland]

I wish you would stop saying "nobody is saying (the thing everyone is actually literally saying)".

Yes, the post saying "I need a woman for a role mode" is limiting one's role models by gender.

[thelibrarian]

No it is not. It is a woman for a rolemodel, not a woman for my one and only and forever rolemodel.

Having a woman for a rolemodel does not exclude also having a man as a rolemodel.

[JohnHaugeland]

A limitation is still a limitation even if it isn't universal.

[king_jester]

If you really believed this, then you would agree that this is true for women in STEM in that the field is heavily stacked with men. It is totally justified to counteract such an implicit limitation in the field by someone putting in extra effort to meet women in STEM.