Potsdam, NY, March 11, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The 1970’s has been viewed as a crucial decade for women in engineering, yet the stories of those pioneering women’s careers and lives, and the lessons they learned about career persistence, were never fully studied.
Until now.
Prepare to be empowered and inspired by the lives and careers of six innovative women in engineering. These women are the focus of three short videos and a short-form documentary about women in engineering that will premiere on Broadway next month.
These trailblazing women are:
- Joanie Banks-Hunt
- Debra Dibble Boone
- Sheree Gibson
- Suzanne Hardie
- Kate Harper
- Susan Suhr
Based on Clarkson University Associate Professor of History Dr. Laura Ettinger’s game-changing work for the National Science Foundation that captures the DNA of pioneering American women in engineering, this empowering event will unveil three short videos to inspire middle school and early high school girls and premiere a short form documentary for all ages that shares the stories of six trailblazing professional women engineers who inspire the next generation.
There will be a panel of women engineers and aspiring engineers featured in the videos, along with a network with corporate partners. Ettinger and Zac Miller, founder of Uncommon Image Studios and creator of the videos and documentary, will also be there. The “Inspire! Six Trailblazing Women Engineers Inspire the Next Generation” Broadway Premiere will be held in The Great Hall at The Cooper Union, 7 East 7th Street, New York, NY 10003, on Sunday, April 5 at 2:00 p.m. Doors open at 1 p.m. with a reception afterward.
In the United States, engineering remains one of the undergraduate majors with the smallest percentage of women. The percentage of women engineers in the workplace is even smaller. This three-part educational video series, with accompanying instructional modules, will empower middle school and early high school girls to overcome obstacles facing girls and women in STEM fields, such as a lack of confidence and discouragement from others.
Each video features inspiring, real stories told by accomplished women engineers that contextualize and examine hurdles that girls and young women may face in the engineering field, and offer strategies to overcome those hurdles. As we hear these stories, we see the same trailblazing women engineers serving as mentors and role models for the next generation of girls as they embrace the excitement of engineering education within the context of a STEAM summer camp at Clarkson University.
The videos, and the accompanying instructional modules, acknowledge structural challenges while encouraging middle school and early high school girls (at a time when their interest and confidence in the STEM fields often decreases) to develop resilience and understand potential obstacles they may face during their education and careers. The result is uplifting, relatable, authentic educational content that offers meaningful strategies to eliminate barriers for girls and women to enter and persist in engineering and related fields.
- Encourage! Leading Women Engineers Encourage the Next Generation: Leading women engineers encourage girls to do what they love, defy stereotypes, push through setbacks, and pursue engineering.
- Motivate! Motivational Messages from Accomplished Women Engineers: Accomplished women engineers inspire young women and give them advice about their future careers and lives.
- Educate! What is an Engineer? Perspectives of Trailblazing Women Engineers: Trailblazing women engineers explain what engineering is and debunk myths about the field.
- Trailblazers: The Untold Stories of Six Women Engineers (documentary)
To RSVP to the event click here: cuonline.clarkson.edu/inspire
As a private, national research university, Clarkson is a leader in technological education and sustainable economic development through teaching, scholarship, research and innovation. We ignite personal connections across academic fields and industries to create the entrepreneurial mindset, knowledge and intellectual curiosity needed to innovate world-relevant solutions and cultivate the leaders of tomorrow. With its main campus located in Potsdam, N.Y., and additional graduate program and research facilities in the New York Capital Region, Beacon, N.Y., and New York City, Clarkson educates 4,300 students across 95 rigorous programs of study in engineering, business, the arts, education, sciences and health professions. Our alumni earn salaries that are among the top 2.5% in the nation and realize accelerated career growth. One in five already leads as a CEO, senior executive or owner of a company.
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