Despite strides made over the years, women earned only around a quarter of all engineering degrees awarded in the U.S. in 2020.
The yearly UChicago Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering Women’s Luncheon, held May 29, hopes to build a better, more comfortable home for women in engineering, creating a community where they can openly discuss their experiences among people who understand.
“Every one of us knows what it’s like to be the only woman in the room. That sense of isolation can follow us through our careers if we don’t actively share experiences and the lessons learned with one another,” said PME Dean Nadya Mason. “We might sometimes still be the only woman in the room, but we can be inspired knowing that together, we’re in every room.”
PME Director of Career Development Briana Konnick, who organized the event, said it hands students and postdocs “a roadmap” for the opportunities and barriers they’ll encounter as they start their careers.
“The Luncheon is an opportunity for women in academic research environments to come together, to connect on shared and lived experiences and to share practical advice and insight into opportunities and challenges,” Konnick said.
Unlike the PME Women’s History Month event held by the Graduate Student Council each year, the Women’s Luncheon is not aimed at sharing women’s accomplishments and hurdles with the PME community at large. The Luncheon is aimed solely at women-identifying researchers, staff and faculty.
“All of our discussion topics are linked around areas that are crucial and necessary to how women navigate academic research, and PME in particular,” Konnick said.
One of the deliberate ways the event built community was in the seating. Each table was organized so a prominent PME figure was able to speak directly with students and postdocs they might not otherwise encounter. Mason, Bunning Family Professor Cathryn Nagler, William B. Ogden Professor of Molecular Engineering and Vice Dean for Faculty Affairs Melody Swartz and Neubauer Family Assistant Professors of Molecular Engineering Chong Liu and Allison Squires volunteered to share their experiences in this way.
Nayana Tiwiri, a PhD candidate in the Bernien Lab, was one of the student organizers for both the Women’s Luncheon and the Women’s History Month celebration. She said they fill different, but equally important, needs for PME.
“It’s just exciting that we get so much involvement in these events, not just from students, but also postdocs and faculty and staff members,” Tiwiri said. “Having consistent attendance at these events shows how much PME values and benefits from them.”
The students who attended also expressed the value of a place to share their experiences.
“Events like this let us know that admin and faculty are there for us, and that they actually want to maintain a line of communication,” said Lauryn Carver, a PhD candidate in the Tirrell Lab. “It’s important to know we’re heard.”