ear colleagues,

Please circulate in your networks.

I am pleased to announce an important side event at the United Nations  Commission on the Status of Women, to be held on Wednesday, February 23 from 1:15 pm to 2:45 pm at UN headquarters in New York city Conference Room 4 NLTB, see attached announcement.
Date:  23 February 2011
Time: 1:15-2:45pm
Venue: Conference Room 4 NLTB, United Nations Headquarters, New York

For more information contact:  [log in to unmask]

Ttitle: STEM:  Expanding Access to Education and Employment Opportunities for Girls and Women with Disabilities in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM)
Strategy for Action!

The priority theme for the 55th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women is “access and participation of women and girls to education, training, science and technology, including for the promotion of women’s equal access to full employment and decent work.”  Girls with disabilities have the lowest education participation rates in the world and knowledge of STEM subjects is especially deficient.  Women with disabilities have low employment rates, as compared with men with and without disabilities and women without disabilities. Women with disabilities often live in economic poverty.  Therefore, any discussion of gender and STEM must include women and girls with disabilities.  Throughout the world, science and technology fields are dramatically expanding and this is true in developed countries as well as in developing countries these skills and knowledge could provide significant employment opportunities for girls and women with disabilities.  Additionally, because of the important role that knowledge of quantitative math skills and science plays in everyday life, skills in this field could have a dramatic impact on the daily lives and independence of girls and women with disabilities.  STEM education affords women and girls with disabilities the opportunity to pursue further education and future employment in these fields as well as providing them with the skills to perform daily financial and household tasks, or work in microfinance programs.  Exposure to these educational STEM subjects has been shown to develop confidence among girls and increase the possibility that they will continue their education and pursue careers.
Panel Presenters:
 
·         Akiko Ito, Chief,  Secretariat for the Convention on the rights of Persons with Disabilities/DESA.
·         Stephanie Ortoleva, Esq., Senior Human Rights Legal Advisor, BlueLaw International, LLP, and author of numerous articles on women and girls with disabilities and international human rights.
·         Harilyn Rousso, educator, psychotherapist, writer, filmmaker and advocate for disability rights, founder of the Networking Project for Disabled Women and Girls of the YWCA of New York City, author of Double Jeopardy and   Producer of Positive Images:  Portraits of  Women with Disabilities.
 ·         Linda P. Thurston, Ph.D., Project Manager for Education and Careers in STEM for People with Disabilities, National Science Foundation and on leave from her position as Assistant Dean of the School of Education, Kansas State University.
·         Ivonne Mosquera, M.B.A., Program Manager for Information Systems, Dow Chemical, former U.S. National Science Foundation Fellow and the U.S. National Visually Impaired Female Triathlon  Champion.
·         Maria Veronica Reina, M.S. Education, Executive Director, Global Partnership for Disability and Development (GPDD).