We want to send out a sincere thank you for participating in this event.
If you were unable to attend the event there is information below that may be of interest to you.
If you are interested in organizing a similar event please reach out to the EEOB graduate student diversity committee representative (Jason Macrander, macrander.1@osu.edu) with any questions or concerns you may have.
Sincerely,
The WSTEM Panel discussion organizers:
The video from the panel discussion which took place August 27, 2015:
You can download the PPT here
Your Feedback:
General Comments & Suggestions for Future Events:
“Thank you so much for organizing the event! If such an event were to happen again, it might be nice to have it someplace where we could set up tables for lunch and speak with those at our table over lunch (more similar to a conference) because once lunch came, some folks seemed to become disengaged from the conversation if they didn’t already know people there.”
“If time would allow, I think allowing participants to have small group time with all of the panel speakers would have been beneficial. My small group session was great, but I wish I would have had the opportunity to speak to multiple panel speakers.
“-It would have been interesting to have a male (especially one that had attended the White Men as Full Diversity Partners workshop) on the panel. The food, once it arrived, was GREAT! It will probably be a contributing factor in my decision to go to another panel, if there is one. Overall, I enjoyed the different perspectives of the panel and learned a great deal.”
“It was a really neat discussion. I would go back to the audience responses a little more (i.e., I loved starting the day with them to encourage audience commitment, and then going to the panelists is great, but going back to TopHat every now and then (or maybe one or two multiple-question sessions?) would encourage the audience to recommit and stay open and focused).”
“Thanks for bringing this up.”
“Excellent program! Thank you so much to the organizers for putting this together.”
“Thoroughly enjoyed the morning. Nicely put together. Wish there had been more time for discussion within the large group.”
“I felt very empowered after attending this seminar and I felt that I was not alone and that there were other women in my field who could understand my struggles and help me to take on the challenges that I will face in my field.”
“It was great, and there should be more events like this!”
“The PowerPoint was great. I appreciated the number of statistics shown.”
“I like that we talked broadly but it may have been helpful to zero in on specific topics like a female grad student experience or a female professor experience etc.”
“More panelists. Maybe discussion prompts for groups that found it difficult to keep the conversation going/ divert conversations being dominated by a few people. Maybe invite faculty from the organizing students department to not only open their eyes but gain their experiences in the audience as well.”
“It seems one of your aims was to enhance knowledge of resources available at the Women’s Place. That wasn’t as prominent as it could have been at the Panel Discussion. Maybe having them speak for 15 minutes after the panel would help better identify how they can help women in STEM at OSU”
“I would be interested in talking about issues that affect women in STEM intersectinoally–age, race, class, etc. but was overall very impressed with the existing conversation .”
“Great event. One thing that comes to mind that could have been improved is that the focus on women meandered at times. I think it would have been good to hear more about problems specific to women from the panelists and in the discussion following. I think a bit of what was discussed was general information for graduate students.”
“Divide people into discussion groups based on the types of questions they have. Some groups talked about finding a mentor which is really helpful for undergraduate and new graduate students but not as much for post docs. Some groups talked about planning for career and children which may be less applicable to some people.”
“While the information on family services for faculty was great, I would have liked to hear about similar resources for graduate students.”
“We need more at-hand advise how to react in certain situations.”
“The conversation and program addressed a gender binary system, rather than including inclusive language that directed those who identify outside the gender binary. When brought up in the group discussion, I felt isolated, as there appeared to be a lack of understanding of gender identity and gender expression. I feel that the program should be inclusive of all gender identities and not generalize what is masculine of feminine.”
Why did we doing this?
Currently the gender gap in many STEM fields is an apparent and seemingly stagnant problem. Societal upbringing and implicit biases, combined with predominantly male dominated fields of expertise, have resulted in a significantly higher gender disparity when compared to other areas of employment outside the STEM fields. This is directly impacting the US economy and national security as many US corporations are forced to import a large portion of their workforce from overseas.
We will have a panel discussion taking place with five faculty members from various departments all with different backgrounds and experiences related to struggles women face when beginning a career in a STEM field. The purpose of the proposed panel discussion is to provide an environment that will facilitate the sharing of ideas regarding potential pitfalls and roadblocks that women often encounter when pursuing a career in STEM. The panel discussion will involve research examples that clarify some of the issues women are facing when pursuing STEM careers, but will also include anecdotal and qualitative reporting that may not be apparent from the quantitative results.