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Marketing and University Communication UW-Green Bay, CL 815 2420 Nicolet Drive Green Bay, WI 54311-7001 (920) 465-2626 E-mail: hildebrs@uwgb.edu Last update: 10/1/07 |
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In
the News Archive - Year:
March 31, 2004 Miss Wisconsin talks science at UWGB University honors women working in the field By Cynthia Hodnett Sauerhammer made good on her plans of going into the medical field by
becoming the youngest person ever to graduate from the University of Wisconsin-Madison
Medical School last May at 22. She graduated in 1999 from the University
of Wisconsin-Green Bay in human biology and human development.
Sauerhammer, 23, shared her story Tuesday at Celebrating Women in Science,
a reception to honor women in science fields at the UWGB.
Lt. Gov. Barbara Lawton was also a guest speaker.
"I wanted to be a doctor ever since I was 2 years old," said Sauerhammer
who plans to become a pediatric surgeon. She begins her residency at University
of Wisconsin Hospital in the next few weeks.
"I think I wanted to be a doctor because I love helping people," she
said.
"One of the things, for whatever reason, that exists is that young women
have the attitude from very early on in their lives that they can't be
successful in math and science," Lawton said. "We need to figure out ways
to bring more women into fields that involve math, science and technology."
The reception was a chance to highlight inroads local women have made
in the sciences, said Joyce Salisbury, associate dean of Liberal Arts
and Sciences and a humanistic studies professor at UWGB.
"Our female students are actively engaged in research with faculty and
have won many research awards," Salisbury said. "We thought that we should
tell people about the good work that we're doing."
Ten of the 42 full-time scientists at UWGB are women. For comparison,
40 percent of all full-time instructional staff in science are women.
During the 2002-03 academic year, 62 women who majored in interdisciplinary
programs received degrees in natural science, compared with 23 men. During
that same year, 35 women majoring in disciplinary programs received degrees,
compared with 49 men. Although UWGB has a higher number of female students
than males, the large number of women in science-related majors reflects
a growing trend.
At colleges and universities nationwide, about 44 percent of degrees
in natural and mathematical sciences were awarded to women, according
to the National Science Foundation.
National Science Foundation data show science and engineering master's
degrees awarded to women increased by 60 percent between 1985 and 1995.
The 35,791 degrees earned by women in 1995 were 38 percent of the total
science and engineering degrees awarded in that year, up from 22,331,
or 32 percent of the total, in 1985.
Heidi Fencl, a 42-year-old assistant natural and applied sciences professor
at UWGB, said the climate for women who go into science fields has changed.
"I think part of the change is that middle- and high-school teachers
are becoming more encouraging for women to go into the sciences," Fencl
said.
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