By Jessica Anstice
Girls from school across the Casey and Cardinia regions came together for the annual Women in STEM morning tea on Friday 6 March.
The event was a celebration of International Women’s Day and an opportunity to showcase women working in STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths), while promoting the possibilities of a STEM-related career.
Female students were invited to attend, with the opportunity to discuss what it’s like to work in a STEM career over morning tea.
More than 130 students, teachers and invited guests attended the event, held at Casey Tech School.
The audience was treated to a presentation from Shock Jockey Cos Play.
In full Cos Play costume, Caitlin and Ally explained that even though female gamers make up 47 percent of the gaming community, they are heavily under-represented in the gaming industry.
Caitlin and Ally’s message to the girls was: “When you see sexist behaviour in gaming, call it out”.
Minister for Women and Youth Minister, Gabrielle Williams addressed the audience and encouraged the girls to never see their gender as a barrier.
Ms Williams said that girls quite often feel less confident than their male counterparts and as a result have more reservation about having a go at activities that seem difficult.
STEM is amongst the highest earning industries in the country with the largest pay gap between men and women, so Ms Williams was eager to let the students know that there is no barrier to young women seeking a career in STEM.
After the formalities students joined women working in STEM for morning tea and they were able to ask questions such as: “How did you learn about the skills you need for your work?”; “What is the hardest thing about your work?”; and “What is the most exciting thing about your role?”.
Inspired by the events of the day, students also contributed to a pledge wall where they committed to working towards against gender inequality.
Students then broke into groups to try different STEM activities which included biohacking, design, virtual reality and robotics.
“This was an opportunity to ignite young imaginations and perhaps set them on a path to a successful career in STEM,” schools industry and workforce transitions partnership broker Helen Rabot said.
“As the students were farewelled after the event they were asked if they had a good time and it was a resounding ‘yes’ from an energised assembly of girls.”
The event was sponsored by Federation University, City of Casey, St John of God and Successful Endeavours.
