Women in STEM celebrated the International Day of Women and Girls in Science Feb. 11 in the Overman Student Center. The organization was tabling to expand their organization and give out candy, buttons, and valentines.
Halle Finnerty, a junior majoring in chemistry with a minor in biology and a predental emphasis, helped with the event.
“So, today is international Women in Science Day, so we are just out here tabling, and kind of trying to grow the organization,” Finnerty said. “We’re giving out candy, buttons and valentines, just to get the word around about our organization.”
The day was established by the UN General Assembly in 2015. There is a theme every year, and this year it was “From vision to impact: Redefining STEM by closing the gender gap,” according to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. This day is meant to promote and support women in the science fields, so it pairs with the Women in Stem organization.
“International Day of Women and Girls in Science is important because it promotes the participation and success of Women in Stem,” Jody Neef, chemistry professor and co-advisor of Women in Stem, said.
The group does many things, including community service and raising money. The organization got up and running last semester, so they are trying to build it up and have tabling. The women also make plenty of buttons, especially to sell when raising money.
“We do community service,” Finnerty said. “We’ve only been up and running for a semester. So last semester we opened this club back up and did a lot of tabling events. We raised money for breast cancer last semester. We did community clean up. We raised money for the organization itself but doing a lot of bake sales and selling other things that the girls in the organization made. As well as buttons, a lot of buttons.”
As these women are in science, many are in organic chemistry with Neef. Being their professor and advisor, Neef is impressed by these students and wants their success.
“Many of these young ladies have taken or are currently taking my organic chemistry class, and they are an outstanding group of students,” Neef said. “They are very intelligent and motivated, and I am committed to their success.”
The goal of Women in Stem is to make women in the field feel their voices matter and their intelligence matters, Finnerty said. This directly counteracts the problem she sees in science, technology, engineering, and math subjects. Finnerty added that advocacy is important.
“I think it’s very important to advocate for women in rooms that they don’t feel welcome or places where they’re overlooked,” Finnerty said. “A big problem today in the science, technology, engineering, and math array of subjects is women are overlooked a lot. Basically, our goal is to make these women feel like their voices do matter and they can speak up and show their intelligence and out having to worry about being hunched down on or overlooked.”