New England Region F Conference 2008

Franklin W. Olin, College of Engineering      Saturday, April 12     Needham, MA   

 

 

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The Gender Chip Project

Jean Donohue, producer/director, Media Working Group

 

Presentation Description:

Though women comprise the majority of undergraduates in America, only 20% are earning degrees in engineering and computer science. Opportunities for workers in STEM fields are expected to increase by 5.6 million by 2008, yet only 11% of the science and engineering workforce is comprised of women. Representing 50% of the available talent pool, women need to be both centrally involved in shaping new areas of research and technology, as well as advocating for change around the balancing of workplace and family issues.

 

How can we use media to inspire dialogue and bring more women into the engineering professions? In this workshop, participants will watch a short section of The Gender Chip Project, the 2006 documentary story that follows a remarkable and persistent group of college women at Ohio State University as they train in engineering, the sciences and the technological fields. Following the screening, we will present and discuss ways to use the film and our accompanying online toolkits and curricula to move viewers from insight to action around issues of gender equity. When presented in a range of public settingsfrom professional group meetings to college peer clusters and presentations for high school studentsThe Gender Chip Project provokes deep and wide-ranging conversations among women in the STEM fields, and serves as a springboard to build awareness and affect change at the institutional and policy levels.

 

The Gender Chip Project offers both a documentary and companion materials designed to assist teachers, parents and mentors who are encouraging girls to the pursue careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.  For more information visit http://www.genderchip.org

 

About the Speaker

Jean Donohue, producer/director, is an independent producer and member of the Media Working Group, Inc. filmmaker cooperative. She has been producing and directing documentaries for over twenty-five years. Her work has been seen on the British Broadcasting Corporations BBC 2, the BBC World Service, The Discovery and Learning Channels, WNET13-New York, and regional public television in the U.S. Her documentaries include WOMEN MINERS (1989); FROM THE SHADOWS OF POWER (1991) screened at the International Flaherty Documentary Seminar and broadcast on WNET-13 New York for Independent Focus; HYBRID CITY co-producer and segment director for BBC 2 (1994); COAL BLACK VOICES (2001) broadcast on regional PBS, awarded Festival Pick at Athens International Video and Film Festival. She is currently executive producer and principal investigator for THE GENDER CHIP PROJECT funded by the National Science Foundation (2004 & 2006), distributed by Women Make Movies. She lives in Boston, MA.

 

 

Our 2008 Corporate Sponsors

 

Executive Level Sponsor:

Raytheon

 

Senior Level

Sponsors:

FM Global

 

United Technologies

Corporation

 

Associate Level Sponsors:

 

Sensata Technologies

 

IBM

 

Bose Corporation

 

BBN Technologies

 

Rohm & Haas Electronic Materials

 

Cisco Systems