“You’re a girl. I can’t let a girl pitch the company to investors.” Those words were spoken by my male teammate nearly three months ago, yet they still echo loudly in my head even today.

The gender gap in the modern workforce is a topic that has been discussed in a myriad of newspapers, books and lectures. Over the past few years, I found myself skimming through the articles I read about the lack of women in the field of business and the disadvantage that women are at compared to males.

Gender disparity was a faint idea somewhere on the far-off horizon, not an issue close to my heart.

This past summer, I was thrown into a month-long whirlwind where I was given the chance to meet 65 other business-minded individuals with a diverse range of talents from all across the world. The first thing I noticed when I stepped into the room was the ratio of males to females.

Ideally, the gender ratio should always be 1:1. This allows for a better exchange of ideas and equal compatibility between individuals. Instead, I was shocked to realize that there were 4 males for every female in the room.

Throughout the month, it became strikingly clear that it was the boys who were benefiting from the program the most, as they were able to exchange ideas and support each other with the camaraderie that they shared. When individuals were put into groups, the teams composed of only males won competitions and had greater participation than the teams made up of girls.

Every girl, including myself, felt overshadowed and slightly overwhelmed. Whenever I raised my hand to answer a question, I was met by glances of surprise from boys across the room. Should I have stayed quiet and not offered my opinion?

When my own teammate, someone I was supposed to trust to always have my back, refused to let me talk to venture capitalists merely because I was a girl, I decided that his remark was the last straw. I stood up and declared that if I was a member of the team, I deserved the same opportunities as everyone else.

After successfully having multiple conversations with venture capitalists, I realized that this was a problem worth fighting for.

To this day, it is frustrating to look back at the endless instances of gender disparity that I faced over that month. I am glad to say that I took a stand and refused to submit to the overbearing attitude of my male counterparts, yet it hurts to know that other women and girls across the world also face the same problem. According to the Media Planet’s Empowering Women, women earn 77 cents for every dollar that men earn, even though they are 35 percent better than men at returning invested money to shareholders.

With only 14 percent of executives of the S&P 500 companies being women, it’s time for girls who are still in high school to start showing men that we have the same, if not more, capabilities as they do.

My summer has been filled with a wide collection of experiences that I would never give up. But if there is one thing I’ve learned, it’s that the gender gap is real, and it’s worth fighting against.

This piece was originally published in the pages of the Winged Post on August 31, 2015.