With women making up well over half of the student population, Creighton is taking a closer look into what these women will encounter in the workplace through a speaker series that will take place on campus next week.

The two-part series called “Women’s Perspectives,” will start with an open panel discussion based on reactions to the 2006 report on Women and Leadership in Omaha.

The report revealed that although women in Omaha have made strides toward achieving equality in the workplace, a large gender gap still exists.

According to the study, only one municipality in Douglas County, Valley, elected a woman as mayor, and in 2006, women served in only 10 of the 44 city and county council level positions.

“The fact that there are no women on the city council or mayoral committees is disconcerting,” said the Rev. John P. Schlegel, S.J., university president and part of the focus group for the Women’s Fund of Greater Omaha. “But, there are exceptions who have fought their way to the top.”

Among the speakers on the panel are women leaders of Omaha companies, female Creighton faculty and one female Creighton student, Katelyn Cherney.

Cherney, Arts & Sciences senior and co-founder of the Women’s Empowerment Base, said she believes that one of the problems women tend to face is not appearing tough, but that that is sometimes what is needed to succeed in the workplace.

“I am often misinterpreted as having a lower capacity for empathy and tenderness,” Cherney said. “I fear that women are reluctant to assert their candid opinions for fear of ‘being difficult’ or coming across as demanding.”

The second part of the series will be a talk by Alice Hayes, former president of the University of San Diego. The lecture will focus on women’s issues on a Catholic college campus.

Katie Welsh, graduate assistant in the Lieben Center for Women, one of the co-sponsors of the event, says this series is a way for women to become more aware of the issues dealing with expected societal roles.

“This event, in some ways, is about questioning why we are trying to fit into roles or to systems that allow for injustices, such as excluding individuals from roles because they are different,” she said. “It is about asking how you can step outside your role or systems, or even to expand the role or system to allow for change to take place.”

The series has sparked interest in other members of the Omaha community who want to become involved, so it is likely that a similar event will happen again in the future.

“I am very conscious of the way I want female Creighton students to develop,” Schlegel said. “Women should know their potential and the opportunities they have to break the glass ceiling.”

The panel discussion will take place Tuesday, Dec. 4 from 4-5:15 p.m., and the women’s issues lecture will be Wednesday, Dec. 5 from 4-5 p.m., both in Rigge Science 120.