In light of International Women’s Day on March 8th, Her Campus Lasell found it necessary to highlight the woman that has impacted our lives or who we see making a difference for their community for this week (and every day). In this Empowering Woman Series, we have chosen to interview students, friends, family, and professors about what they do and what it’s like being bada** empowering women.
Most young women grew up admiring other women, whether it was someone they had read about in a history book, saw gracing TV screens, or whose music they heard on the radio. Others, however, needed only to look in their own homes to find an admirable woman. In this case, it was an immigrant woman who kicked ass in a male-dominated field in her 20s and 30s.
Born in Rosario, Argentina, Silvia Serratore came to the United States in 1964 following her parent’s drastic decision to flee the country after Juan Peron rose to power. Though she was only two years old at the time, Serratore faced many of the challenges that befell immigrants. The school was rough for her as a young girl because she spoke mostly Spanish and there weren’t services for English language learners in the small New York town her family settled in. After being taught English by a caring teacher who went above and beyond the call of duty (Serratore says that to this day she still feels indebted to this woman), she quickly rose to near the top of her class. As a high schooler, she realized her talent for math and love of the sciences, which ultimately led her to study chemical engineering at Manhattan College in Riverdale, New York.
When Serratore began classes at Manhattan, their highly-regarded engineering program was dominated by male students. She was frequently the only woman in her classes and was one, of what was at the time, only a handful of women who had ever graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in engineering from the college. She eventually obtained her Master’s degree in chemical engineering, and then went on to work in labs developing medicines.
What is admired the most about Serratore, though, is that she figured out how to have the best of both worlds. She was able to work in a male-dominated field while also doing traditionally feminine things. My mom is as fascinated with the Periodic Table as she is with romance novels, as adept at solving equations as she is at styling hair, and she also chose to marry and have three children. Growing up with her as a mother, she’s made it apparent to not have to choose between a career and a husband, or kids and a promotion. Serratore proves that women can have it all.