Women working in STEM jobs earn 33% more than those in non-STEM occupations. STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics.
As part of the Nebraska Science Festival, there will be a “Women in Science” panel on Tuesday, April 25th where panelists will share their life experiences and lessons learned in their respective STEM careers.
One of the participants is Dr. Jessica Maxwell, Breast Surgical Oncologist at UNMC. She says though things are changing, women are still underrepresented in these fields.
Maxwell says she thinks a lot of gender stereotyping happens at a young age and a lot of it is unintentional.
She says the most important thing for women is to go after what they want, like she did.
"You always get pushback and you always have people who think you can’t possibly be the doctor because you’re the woman in the room. They talk to the male medical student or the male nurse before they talk to you. And that’s a really common thing that happens to a lot of females in medicine. It’s frustrating, but you learn to live with it. But I think as more women are encouraged to enter these fields, hopefully that will become a less common occurrence.”
Dr. Maxwell is joined on the “Women in Science” panel by Rebecca Stavick, executive director of Do Space and Nancy Williams, co-founder, President & CEO of No More Empty Pots.
The panel discussion takes place on Tuesday from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m. at MCC at Do Space, 7205 Dodge Street. More information is available at NeSciFest.com.