Recent reporting on the gender divide in university mathematics highlights a reality those of us who teach first-year courses recognise well: women and gender-diverse students remain underrepresented, and the adverse social climate reported by students, including the fear of speaking up lest they ‘look dumb’ in front of male classmates, is real. As someone who has taught first-year mathematics since 2009, largely to engineering cohorts, I am well-acquainted with these social dynamics.