Hello and welcome to Not Somali Mormon podcast Minisodes.

Today I have an email from an anonymous writer that is titled BYU Survivor Story.

They write,

Hi, Sarah and Katie. I have been in Exmo for about 15 years now,

and I so wish your podcast had been around back then.

Me too. Well, I've worked through a lot of the religious trauma and everything else that comes from

leaving a cult. I discover new layers from time to time, as I'm sure we all do, and the podcast

brings a lot of comfort and solidarity as I'm working through it.

Oh, I'm so glad.

I'm a BYU survivor and wanted to share a bit about my experience as a woman in a

misogynistic learning environment.

I chose psychology as my major because it interested me, but didn't have a clear idea of a

career path.

At the end of my freshman year,

I scheduled a meeting with my assigned academic advisor, a man, to try and get some guidance.

He told me, quote, psychology is a good major to prepare you to be a wife and mother. You should be

focusing on finding the right person to marry and less about this. I know you're going to be

just fine. For the record, I'm now in my late 30s and neither a wife nor a mother by choice.

That meeting was my awakening to the role that patriarchy played in my life as a Mormon woman.

Here I was, paying the same tuition as a male, doing my part to get an

education and have a career, yet I would have to work much harder to be seen, heard, and supported

in my education. A year later, based on my academic performance, I was approved for an advanced

...