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A patient nominated her for a prestigious nursing award. One problem: She's a doctor.

A male colleague told her it would be more 'humble' to introduce herself by her first name and not the title she'd earned.

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A female doctor was confused for a nurse after taking a male colleague's advice on how to introduce herself.

Years ago, a story went viral about a school kid asked to fill in a blank word containing the letters "u" and "r." The clue? Hospital lady. The kid wrote "surgeon," which was marked incorrect. The answer sheet was looking for nurse. The resulting kerfuffle showed, clear as day, that gender bias still exists almost everywhere. Worse yet, it's still being unintentionally ingrained in our kids from a very young age.

The worksheet in question was from 1997. The story cropped up in 2017. Surely, things have gotten better by now! We've come a long way when it comes to gender bias, discrimination, and, well, pure sexism, right? Right?!

Abbie Cantwell, a doctor from Portland, Oregon, recently shared a story from her hospital that sadly proves otherwise.

nurse, doctor, female doctor, women in medicine, women, sexism, gender bias, discrimination, equal payAbbie Cantwell wouldn't dream of disrespecting nurses. But she's not one.Giphy

In a TikTok video, Dr. Abbie describes getting some questionable advice from a male mentor and colleague at her hospital. He told her it would be more approachable and humble if she introduced herself by her first name (Abbie) instead of by her full title (Dr. Cantwell). Cantwell was hesitant to take the advice but eventually decided to give it a shot. She was vindicated almost immediately.

"I did that one time with a family. I was like 'Hi, I'm Abbie, I'm the doctor in the ICU.' And they legitimately nominated me for a DAISY Award."

A DAISY award is an honor given to nurses who show exceptional patient care and compassion. Anyone in a hospital or healthcare setting can nominate a nurse for their work, including patients and supervisors. It's a great honor and it means Cantwell did a phenomenal job caring for her patient. But, remember, she's a doctor, not a nurse!

"Love, respect, thank you, it's an honor," Cantwell says. "But an incorrect one."

In an effort to take her mentor's advice and seem more humble and approachable, Cantwell had inadvertently made herself "smaller" and stopped demanding the respect she deserved. Watch her tell the whole story here.


@abbiecantwell

Women in stem baby #fyp #residency #medicine #medicalschool

Over a million viewers tuned in. Cantwell's story resonated with medical professionals, and women, everywhere who've had their achievements overlooked.

Commenters had her back, for certain:

"If I had MD behind my name, even my kids would be referring to me as doctor.

"But he would NEVER say that to a male. Babes you worked hard to earn that Doctor title."

"If I had MD behind my name I’d make my own mother call me doctor."

"A senior male attending pulled me aside my first week of intern year and told me to never introduce myself by my first name. He was looking out for me - looking back, I’m so grateful. I had no idea."

"Never do that again. Women docs aren’t making themselves small, for ppl anymore. You are the doctor. We need need to address you as such."

Some argued that Cantwell should look on the bright side:

"Well at least we know you’re great at your job doctor."

Again, Cantwell's story is no shade to nurses, who deserve all the respect in the world. But no one would ever suggest to a male doctor that he be more "humble" by dropping the title he earned through years of school and rigorous training. And that's the problem.

nurse, doctor, female doctor, women in medicine, women, sexism, gender bias, discrimination, equal payConscious and unconscious biases are keeping women out of doctoring. Photo by TopSphere Media on Unsplash

Men currently account for 62% of doctors, with women at 38%. This is despite women earning college degrees and masters degrees at a higher rate than men. So, what gives? An essay in The Guardian cites high levels of burnout from female medical professionals and argues that "medicine continues to systematically disadvantage women physicians at every stage of their careers, causing many to leave." Patients and colleagues alike may be distrustful of female doctors and may not give them the respect and cooperation they deserve, making their experience and job much more difficult than their male counterparts. "And so women in medicine are given advice to make themselves smaller, more palatable, more humble and approachable. And by doing so they undermine themselves."

This phenomenon reflects broader societal biases about women in healthcare," Cantwell told Newsweek. "Addressing it is essential to breaking down barriers and inspiring future generations of women in STEM."

Courtesy of Capital One
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Capital One

Eighth grader Ailyn Moreno wants to save the planet, but she wasn't sure how she'd go about it until recently.

As a student at the Dallas Environmental Academy in Texas, Moreno knew she was interested in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math), specifically science and engineering, but there are so many career choices that exist within these broad categories. She knew she wanted to hone in on her passion, but wasn't exactly sure how to apply her academic learning to the real world.

Then one of her teachers told her about Girls Inc., a nonprofit that empowers girls ages six to 18 to value themselves, take risks, and discover and develop their inherent strengths. Through long-lasting mentoring relationships, a pro-girl environment, and research-based programming, girls become equipped to navigate gender, economic, and social barriers, and grow up healthy, educated, and independent.

Moreno was connected to the Eureka! STEM program at Girls Inc. of Dallas, which offers an intensive, five-year program to build a girls' confidence and skills through hands-on opportunities in STEM. She thought it "would open so many doors," so she decided to join.


From the moment she began the summer program, Moreno felt like she was seeing how careers in STEM, like doctors and software engineers, function in the real world. This helped her get a better sense of what areas she might want to pursue down the road.

During the first week, they focused on nursing and occupational therapy. "At every point of the day, we were always doing something fun and interesting," says Moreno. "We practiced giving shots to a football, pretending it was a real human being."

The Eureka! STEM program also gave Moreno the opportunity to participate in Capital One Coders. Through this program, volunteers work one-on-one with the girls, helping them explore coding and computer design technology, and build their own apps. The girls receive hands-on experience with app-building tools using algorithms and get the opportunity to ask the Capital One mentors questions about future career plans. "The mentors were really nice," says Moreno. "They guided us through the whole process of programming and controlling the apps [we made]."

Courtesy of Capital One

Capital One Coders is part of Capital One's Future Edge initiative, which helps more Americans acquire the skills and resources they need to succeed in a technologically-driven economy.

Dallas isn't the only place where Capital One offers a Mentor Day like this with Girls Inc. Capital One Café locations in San Francisco have worked with Girls Inc. on the island of Alameda in the San Francisco Bay area since 2018. After two successful financial literacy workshops with the girls, they decided to bring professionals from STEM-related fields within Capital One to a Mentor Day.

Denise Evans, a Capital One Café Ambassador in San Francisco who helps oversee the partnership with Girls Inc., says she loves helping people gain the tools they need to be successful. Expanding Capital One's reach into a mentorship program was a huge step in that direction.

"I'm always trying to find ways to empower young girls," says Evans. "I feel like [they're] our future."

The idea was to inspire these girls to look outside the box for career possibilities. For example, Evans says many of them didn't realize science and engineering careers existed at Capital One. Others, like Moreno, knew they liked STEM, but had no idea how that interest could turn into a career or what fields were available to them.

Throughout the partnership program with Girls Inc., Evans also noticed how important it was for the girls to have women mentors who have been professionally successful. "To see another female in that role helps them see that there are possibilities that they can achieve, too," she says.

"If we do get more women in STEM, that means [more] equality gender-wise, so that women are offered the same opportunities that men have," says Moreno.

At the end of the partnership program, there's a showcase day where students speak about their experiences, share their projects and apps they made with their families and friends, and even compete for awards. After the festivities, each girl receives a certificate for all they've accomplished.

But Evans says they leave with much more than that. She feels many walk away with a sense of, "Oh I can do this!" meaning they can achieve whatever career dreams they may have. It's why she's pushing for the Capital One Coders program to work with more nonprofits, offer job shadowing experiences for young people, and ultimately open more doors that might've been previously closed to them.

"If you have those doors and the doors are open, then that's going to lead them in the right direction," says Evans.

The program certainly did just that for Moreno, who now has clarity of what she wants to be when she grows up. "I want to become an environmental engineer and help find more ways to save our planet," she says.

To learn more about Capital One's community efforts, go to www.capitalone.com/about.

Barbie's had a multitude of jobs in her lifetime. Her latest career is inspiring kids to dream of a future in STEM.

She's been an architect and a teacher. She's been a firefighter, a lifeguard, and a presidential candidate. She's even been a Canadian Mountie.

But there's one thing that Barbie hasn't been — a robotics engineer. Mattel's newest doll is changing all that.


Barbie's latest iteration has an important goal: Get young girls to grow an interest in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM).

While the doll has some cool accessories right in the box — goggles, a laptop, a cute little robot toy — its most meaningful feature is a suite of coding lessons targeted toward teaching kids how to use logic and critical thinking to solve problems.

Mattel has also partnered with Black Girls Code, an organization that's focused on exposing girls and young women of color to the "digital space" in order to transform them into the leaders of tomorrow. The toy manufacturer will be providing the org with a grant of support and enough dolls to give away at robotics expos hosted by Black Girls Code around the country.

Photo via Mattel.

Inspiring young women to explore careers in STEM is more important than ever.

Although more and more girls are becoming interested in working in the tech sector, women and other marginalized groups are still greatly underrepresented in the field.

According to recent stats, women make up 47% of the workforce in the U.S. but only hold 24% of jobs in STEM. And though women make up almost half of all college graduates, only 25% hold degrees in STEM fields, a problem that's less about "career choice" and much more about the fact that young women haven't been traditionally as encouraged to pursue degrees in tech as young men.

As two girls point out in a new ad campaign for Barbie: "If girls can't see women doing these jobs, how will we know we can?"

The doll will be available in four different ethnicities — so "as many girls as possible see themselves," according to Lisa McKnight, Barbie's general manager and senior vice president — and her fashion choices will authentically mirror what an actual engineer would wear while on the job . That means jeans and sneakers as opposed to slinky evening gowns and high heels.

Kids are already loving the new doll.

Speaking to CBS, 15-year-old Kimora Oliver, who's been working with Black Girls Code, gushed over the fact that the new doll looks like her and shares her interests.

"I remember when I was younger and I used to have Barbies and they used to have a purses and dogs. I would be like, 'I want to be just like that! I want to get this purse and everything,'" Oliver said. "I think other girls will see this and be like, 'I want to get in tech too!'"

Let's hope that excitement for STEM spreads through young girls worldwide!

We were not compensated to write this article — we'd tell you if we were! — we just really loved this doll and what it stands for.

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She was raising $2,600 so 100 girls could see 'Hidden Figures.' She just cleared $13,000.

'I figured this movie would be a good starting point to show girls that even when life gets hard, you have to keep going.'

On Dec. 15, 2016, 13-year-old space enthusiast Taylor Richardson had the experience of a lifetime.

She saw a special screening of "Hidden Figures" at the White House alongside the cast of the movie, first lady Michelle Obama, and several NASA astronauts.

From left, Octavia Spencer, Janelle Monáe, and Kevin Costner. Photo by NASA/Aubrey Gemignani.


Not only was the biopic about Katherine Johnson, Mary Jackson, and Dorothy Vaughan — three women who were the unsung heroes behind the first successful NASA missions into space — inspiring to Richardson on many levels, what hit home most for her was what Michelle Obama said about everything they were up against.

"These women couldn’t even drink from the same water fountain or use the same bathroom as many of their colleagues … and folks didn’t always take these women seriously because they were black and also because they were women," Obama explained that night.

The first lady also talked about how few women — and even fewer women of color — there are working in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) fields today.

The experience made Richardson want to do whatever she could to show girls that their STEM skills are not only welcome, but finally being celebrated.

"I've been to four space centers, and not once were these women and their contributions that impacted our space program mentioned," writes Richardson in an email.

Photo via Fox Movies.

She decided to start a GoFundMe campaign to raise money to offer 100 girls the chance to see "Hidden Figures" for free in the theater.

"I figured this movie would be a good starting point to show girls that even when life gets hard, you have to keep going," Richardson explains.

She included in her budget goal enough money for each girl to get a snack and a copy of the book on which the movie was based.

Literacy is very important to Richardson, who regularly collects gently used STEM books and donates them to schools and children in need. "I've donated over 3,000 books and read to over 250 kids in Jacksonville about STEM and space," Richardson says.

In just 18 days, she exceeded her goal of $2,600 five times over. That extra  money will go toward more screenings for girls who could use some STEM  inspiration right now.

Richardson with NASA astronaut Yvonne Cagle. Photo via Taylor Richardson.

Despite women's growing in STEM work and space exploration these days, there is still a major disparity of women of color in these fields. No doubt the lack of representation in the history books and, until recently, on screen has something to do with that.

While Richardson's idea to provide free movie screenings may seem small, her commitment to changing the game for women of color in STEM is not.

She's far from alone in seeing what the impact a movie like "Hidden Figures" can have on the next generation of girls.

There's a reason "Hidden Figures" has remained #1 at the box office for two weeks straight, beating out blockbusters like "Rogue One." Representation matters — for girls dreaming of being astronauts, women of color who have trouble finding role models, and anyone else who feels left out of history.

Hopefully, thanks to movies like "Hidden Figures," more and more girls will realize there is a place for them in STEM fields.

Richardson, whose goal is to be the first person to walk on Mars, offers some sound advice for girls on the fundraising page: "It's important that girls not only look at the stars but take the steps to reach for them."