In 1959, a small group of about 20 high school girls met with women researchers at UW-Madison to learn about science careers.
Then, it was rare to see a woman in a lab coat on college campuses. Anna Maria Williams, who helped organize that first conference, said she had a hard time finding enough mentors for the girls.
“We didn’t have very many women in whose labs they could go,” recalled Williams, an emeritus biology professor at UW-Parkside. “We put them in labs run by men who then, if possible, got them working with women lab students and post-docs.”
Fifty years later, the program is still going strong. Now called Expanding Your Horizons, it has grown and evolved over the years. The conference will celebrate its 50th anniversary on Saturday at UW-Madison.
One major change is that it’s no longer such a challenge to find women scientists to serve as role models. On Saturday, more than 100 professional women will demonstrate science, give lab tours, and talk to about 350 girls from across south-central Wisconsin.
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