Stormlight archive had me almost tearing up, because I'd always thought that we were way past the stereotype of "men can do science and women can't" and that it was just a thing of the past, and so on...
And then I read Stormlight and I was like.. Oh. So that's what it looks like, when women actually ARE expected to do science. When the science is seen as STRENGTHENING their femininity, rather than rendering them "mannish" or undesirable. She's not doing science "just as well as any man", she's doing science as well as SHE does it. Because it's not inherently in the male domain.
And yes, the Vorin influence on Alethi and Veden society HAS caused a lot of sexism problems, but I do feel like sexism manifests very differently there than it does in our world, and imagining a different kind of sexism opened my up to seeing what kinds of sexism we have here in this world. I'm not saying this is somehow the most important, or even an important problem, but when I realized this, it was like something in me finally clicked. Like, no, science and femininity do NOT have to feel, like they're in conflict with each other, and if they do, that's an issue that society will eventually need to fix.
Thank you, Stormlight Archive, for having weird and different sexism that makes me have baby's first feminist awakening.