#STEMforHer is a term coined by The National Women’s Business Council (NWBC) to promote broadening the pathway for women entrepreneurs and girls to pursue STEM. In partnership with the SBA, the National Women’s Business Council and the Small Business Administration is a partnership geared towards increasing women’s participation in high-growth sectors, like STEM industries. Earlier this week the National Women’s Business Council initiated an online Twitter dialogue with Divya Nag– one of STEM’s youngest-women-entrepreneurs and prominent women innovators and organizations including: Goldie Blox, Girls in Tech, and the SBA. As a result, #STEMforHer has turned into an ongoing dialogue about advancing women and girls in STEM. The growing online dialogue ranges from addressing the STEM gender gap, targeting girls at a young age, and cultivating public/private partnerships and community networks to help increase the number of women-owned businesses in STEM.
Following the #STEMforHer twitter dialogue was a full day of events geared towards identifying solutions to advance women entrepreneurs and girls in STEM. To jump start the full day of events was the NWBC Public meeting which featured a keynote by Divya Nag and insightful commentary from NWBC council members and Chair Carla Harris. Afterwards the SBA’s office of Women’s Business Ownership and the NWBC facilitated a STEMforHer panel discussion and roundtable with Carla Harris (NWBC Chair), Erin Andrew (Assistant Administrator, Office of Women’s Business Ownership, SBA), Divya Nag (Cofounder of Stem Cell Theranostics & StartX Med), Donna Harris (Cofounder of 1776), Elizabeth Grossman (Director, Civic Projects Technology & Civic Engagement Group, Microsoft Corporation), Pravina Raghavan (Deputy Associate Administrator of the Office of Innovation & Investment, SBA), and Rose Wang (NWBC Council member & Founder of Binary Group.)
As STEM continues to heavily influence technological advances and future innovations, there is a growing demand to ensure women are largely represented in the STEM industry. One of NWBC’s main areas of focus is increasing representation of women entrepreneurs in high-growth sectors, like STEM.
Take a look at our photo recap of the #STEMforHer events: #STEMforHer Facebook Album