From Nowhere to Nobels

Women now hold more than half of all American jobs, but they still make up less than twenty-five percent of the science, technology, engineering, and math or STEM workforce. And the numbers are even worse when it comes to the male-dominated field of computer science. Only last year a Yale study revealed that scientists at six major research institutions were more likely to favorably view a male job candidate than a woman with the same qualifications. Yet women are graduating in increasing numbers with STEM degrees, so why does this gender gap persist? And what can we learn from the trail-blazing women and institutions who have succeeded in reversing this trend?

New America's Breadwinning and Caregiving program and Future Tense hosted an event to explore pathways to success for women in STEM.

Agenda

11:45 a.m. Reception

12:00 p.m. A Campus Success Story

Maria Klawe 

President, Harvey Mudd College

12:15 p.m. Lessons from the Lab

Carol Greider
Winner of the 2009 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
Daniel Nathans Professor and Director, Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine

Nancy Hopkins
Amgen, Inc. Professor of Molecular Biology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Moderator:

Liza Mundy
Director, Breadwinning and Caregiving Program, New America Foundation

12:45 p.m. A New Formula for Workplace Equality

Maria Klawe
President, Harvey Mudd College

Edmund Bertschinger
Institute Community and Equity Officer, Professor of Physics, Department of Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Hannah Valantine
Senior Associate Dean, Stanford University

Moderator:

Meredith Wadman
Future Tense Fellow, New America Foundation

1:30 p.m. Incubating the Next Generation

Ashley Gavin
Curriculum Director, Girls Who Code

Kimberly Scott
Associate Professor, School of Social Transformation, Arizona State University
Executive Director, COMPUGIRLS

Moderator:

Geoff Brumfiel
Science Correspondent, NPR