Unlocking your world of creativity. With Mark Stinson, Copyright 2021.

Hello again, friends. This is Mark Stinson and you've come to our podcast Unlocking Your World of Creativity.

And when we talk about our world of creativity, this is the podcast where we literally travel around the world virtually, of course, right now.

But we travel around the world, getting expert insight on how they get inspired for new ideas, how they organize those ideas.

And most of all, how they get the confidence and the connections to launch their work up and out into the world.

I'm so happy today to talk to Dr. Nicole Cherska and we're going to be talking about women and STEM and science and technology and engineering and math and how these STEM fans,

people who are fascinated and want to build a career in STEM can get ahead and overcome obstacles. Dr. Cherska, so glad to have you.

And we said it would be here. Hi Mark.

And I call you Nicole. I'm so formal with the doctor.

Ever since someone told you Biden to drop hers, I'm making it a point to mention mine, but by all means, let's be on a first name basis.

Fantastic. Well, and by way of studies, she has a degree in food science and food technology and innovation and then a PhD in chemistry.

So when we talk about STEM, Nicole, this is a topic near and dear to your heart, isn't it?

It is.

And let's talk about women in science and technology.

And I must say, here we are in the year 2021, I really thought that by now we would be over the obstacles and we would be over the limitations and, you know, sort of having to emphasize.

But where do you see the state of things right now for women and STEM?

I guess it's like with almost any other place. I mean, no matter what industry you look in women, even worse for women of color or any other marginalized groups, there's still a huge inequality.

And there seem to be so many hurdles that are systemic within the politics policies within the cultures of organizations that, you know, and even though we don't want to really believe that it's still there because you know we're also liberal and so open and so forward thinking and so on, but many of the

different advantages are really coming from just things that we, or that organizations, they don't even recognize that they are putting others at a disadvantage.

You know, it's almost like you're being efficient water.

And so I really, you know, shout out to every company who puts their money where their mouth is in highest and, you know, an external organization to help them uncover how does the workforce feel.

The women in your company fear and how does that compare to the dominant group in your company and then also when you uncover that there is inequality and that some people do feel like they don't belong or that they don't feel safe enough to speak up things like that when you then really take proper action to change that culture.

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