The Stories of Women in Fluids: Persevere, Survive, and Thrive*

The Stories of the Women in Fluids Initiative presents a multi-author talk on the 'Women in Fluids - Careers Anthology' book which features a collection of stories by female identifying individuals in underrepresented STEM fields. At the heart of the book lies the powerful theme of 'Persevere, Survive, and Thrive,' which captures the remarkable career trajectories of the women featured in its pages. The book illuminates the complex social, economic, and cultural factors that shape the experiences of women in engineering. It also inspires other minorities to learn from the successes and failures of these women. The stories celebrate the strength and resilience of women, while also acknowledging the challenges they face. The book emphasizes the importance of mentorship and support, and encourages readers to build a strong network of female mentors and role models.

These stories are authored by female scientists and engineers who cover a wide spectrum of career stages and experiences. More specifically, Roni Goldshmid discusses how she shifted gears from economics to engineering and persevered as an experimentalist in the field of fluid dynamics. Kelli Hendrickson shares how she dealt with the felt shame and anger of getting lost in the day-to-day survival of being a researcher and mom rather than focusing on academic career success. Nicole Sharp shares her experiences as a Ph.D. student who sought a support network outside her institution, which helped her launch a non-traditional career path in science communication. Nicole Xu discusses how teaching dance classes improved her work-life balance, and helped her develop transferable skills to academia, such as giving public presentations and teaching. To summarize, the goal of this talk is to give an overview of the breadth of stories in this anthology, the behind-the-scenes of the writing process, and showcase excerpts from the book.