ABOUT OUR GUEST:   Stephanie Slocum is on a mission to normalize engineering, technology, and STEM women in leadership. She helps women become influential leaders while having a life, and she helps organizations committed to gender equity in STEM create work environments that retain and engage their women.  After two engineering degrees and 15 years working in a technical structural engineering consulting role, Stephanie wrote her Amazon.com category bestselling book, She Engineers, to help other women engineers have careers on their own terms. She also founded her own firm, Engineers Rising LLC, focusing on closing the women’s retention and leadership gap in STEM.  As a mom of three girls, engineer, author, and professional speaker, Stephanie is determined to help women step into their power, redefine leadership norms, and use their unique genius to impact the world.  CONNECT WITH STEPHANIE  LinkedIn   Facebook  IG  Engineers Rising Website  Email EPISODE AND EMPOWERING WOMEN IN INDUSTRY LINKS She Leads STEM 100 Leaders Report Intentional Power Book Empowering Women in Industry Membership Empowering Women in Industry Magazine Empowering Women in Industry Website Empowering Women in Industry Virtual Events   QUOTES AND KEY TAKEAWAYS “I entered a workforce where I felt like I didn’t fit. I felt like there was something wrong with me.” “I would observe that my male colleagues were treated a little bit differently. It was hard to pinpoint exactly what was going on other than I feel like I have to spend a lot more time, effort, and energy convincing people that I know what I am talking about.” “The only way you conquer that ‘hard’ is by having the support system around you, even if it is just one person.” “In the United States, we still have a very strong messaging issue around STEM that says if you are good at science and math that you should go this direction.  There is this discounting of the other skills that allowed me to succeed in may engineering degree around leadership skills, communication skills, and power skills.” “Women feel betrayed.  They feel, in a way, that they were brought up to come to science, technology, engineering, and math. We want you here. And they come into the workforce and wonder where is all that support now?” “The number one thing that people pointed to and said, ‘this moment in my career changed my trajectory in a positive way forever was a mentorship moment. Mentorship also went right along with self-advocacy.”