More PNG Women needed in Science and Technology fields

PNG has a long way to go in pushing boundaries in the area of science and technology to greater heights than our capacity at present. And these days as more women are excelling in business and education, more of these strong qualities can also be equalled by women in the fields of science and technology.

At a PNG Women Science & Industry Symposium today, women’s participation and empowerment in the area was encouraged. The meet saw a good number of female scientists, researchers, engineers, technicians and other women in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics areas come together to discuss the importance of innovation and then development process for women in PNG.

One of the guest speakers was a young women named Pricilla Kevin, who established the PNG Women in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics or WiSTEM. She said after being to the US on a similar women’s networking meet like this one, she had gained a lot of valuable knowledge which inspired her to come back and improve the work of women in the field.
Ms. Kevin said the aim for PNG WiSTEM is to promote and encourage participation for more professional women in the area of STEM and aims to carry out a number of programs to contribute to the nation’s development in the area of STEM.

“Our mission is to spark the interest for women in the area. We see women who graduate in science fields tend to go back and do other stuff so we want that to change, and help them to be proud of the role they worked hard for. We also have a number of programs that WiSTEM is looking to roll out and some of them are establishing an efficient data collection mechanism so it will help us set policies and also providing scholarships to young science enthusiastic girls and women who want to advance in STEM.”
Ms. Kevin said encouraging more women and girls in STEM areas will contribute to the growth of this nation immensely and she was thankful to see an overwhelming support from a lot of proffesional men in their work. PNGFM / PNG Today