LU panel brainstorms ways to get more women into science, tech, engineering and math

What can be done to encourage more women into the fields of science and technology?

A panel discussion happening today at Laurentian University in Sudbury, Ont. aims to address that issue.

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Thinkers around the worldare trying to figure out why women are so under-represented in what are called the STEM fields: science, technology, engineering and math.

Laurentian panelist JessePoppis among them.She's currently working on a Ph.D. in wildlife ecology at Laurentian, and saidshe's never seen anything close to gender parity in her discipline.

"Actually, at the end of my undergraduate, I went to my first conference," she recalled. "My supervisor was a man, and he actually told me when we got there, 'Oh, welcome to the Old Boy's Club.' And I looked around, and I'm like, 'Holygeez! It is the Old Boy's Club!'"

Poppis not alone in suggesting thatmore needs to be doneto support women in STEM fields trying to balance family life and academia.

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Arecent report from Statistics Canadaconcludes that, for example,"young women with a high level of mathematical ability are significantly less likely to enterSTEMfields than young men, even young men with a lower level of mathematical ability. This suggests that the gender gap inSTEM-related programs is due to other factors ...Explanations might include differences in labour market expectations including family and work balance."

The discussion on the future of women in STEM is happening today at 1:30 p.m. in the Brenda Wallace Reading Room at Laurentian University in Sudbury.