What I remember, of course, is a time when no woman would have been hired for this "man's job." What I remember is when my generation opened the door for hers. If I talked to her about the old days, I wonder, would she listen as politely as if I were talking about walking four miles in the snow to school?

I am time traveling these days because on Jan. 1 I'll be ending my tenure as a regular columnist on this page. While my colleagues are busily sizing up the decade with lists - Twitter in; Tiger out - I'm quietly sizing up the last four decades.

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Source: Boston Globe

KIHEI, MAUI -- With the national unemployment rate now over 9%, the popular High Tech Maui Holiday Career Fair has become a pivotal starting point for local college graduates, former residents living on the mainland, as well as current residents.

The December 28th event will again be held in Ke Alahele - the MEDB Center, at the Maui Research & Technology Park, 12 noon - 4 pm.

The Holiday Career Fair offers applicants a chance to meet and discuss their qualifications in person with top science and technology personnel. At the same time, it gives Maui-based companies the opportunity to relay the latest job information and recruit Hawaii students and former residents who come home for the holidays.

According to Jenilynne Salvador, Project Manager for the Maui Economic Development Board (MEDB), STEM jobs are not only available in Maui, but also on the other islands.

The fact remains that some employers can't find enough qualified people for good-paying positions.

"There are jobs in engineering, nursing, computer science and energy research that go unfilled because companies can't find people on the island with the right experience," she said. "It creates an excellent opportunity for qualified kama'aina who would have normally looked for work on the mainland to find a comparable job back home."

Overall, employers are finding it especially hard to find accountants, health care workers, software sales representatives, actuaries, data analysts, physical therapists and electrical engineers, labor analysts say.

And those that demand highly specialized training - like biotech firms that need plant scientists or energy companies that need geotechnical engineers - struggle even more to fill jobs.

"MEDB has been focusing its efforts on science, technology, engineering and math education with our current and future workforce in mind," said Salvador. "We have a shortage of people with these skills. If we invest in STEM now, the jobs will be there."

Companies featured at the Career Fair will include Akimeka, The Boeing Company, Hnu Photonics LLC & Hnu Energy LLC, Lockheed Martin, Maui High Performance Computing Center, Monsanto, Oceanit, Pacific Disaster Center, and more.

Jobseekers are encouraged to pre-register online and/or upload resumes for employer review at www.hightechmaui.com.

For more information, contact Jeni Salvador at 808-875-2332 or email jeni@medb.org.

MEDB's High Tech Maui Holiday Career Fair is co-sponsored by Kama`aina Careers and funded in part by the U.S. Department of Labor and the County of Maui.

MALIN RISING
Associated Press Writer

STOCKHOLM (AP) -- The two female winners of this year's Nobel Prize in medicine on Sunday urged scientific institutions to change their career structures to help more women reach top positions.

Americans Elizabeth H. Blackburn and Carol W. Greider said as many women as men start out in science but are often unable to advance after having children because of a lack of flexibility.

"The career structure is very much a career structure that has worked for men," Blackburn told The Associated Press at the sidelines of a press conference in Stockholm.

"But many women, at the stage when they have done their training really want to think about family . . . and they just are very daunted by the career structure. Not by the science, in which they are doing really well."

The two laureates spoke to reporters ahead of next week's Nobel Prize ceremony. They will share this year's 10 million kronor ($1.4 million) medicine prize with countryman Jack W. Szostak for discovering how chromosomes protect themselves as cells divide -- work that has inspired experimental cancer therapies and may offer insights into aging.

It is the first time two women have shared a single Nobel science prize. Over the years only 10 women have won the medicine prize.

Blackburn said a more flexible approach to part-time research and career breaks would help women continue to advance their careers during their childbearing years.

"I'm not talking about doing second-rate quality science, far from it," she said. "You can do really good research when you are doing it part-time."

Greider added that she especially wants to see measures to get more women onto committees and decision-making positions.

"I think that something active needs to be done to do that because there has been many, many years where there have been women coming in at a 50 percent level, and yet the levels at the upper echelons hasn't really changed very much," she said.

Sweden's King Carl XVI Gustaf will hand over the Nobel Prize in medicine on Thursday along with the awards in chemistry, physics, literature and economics. The Nobel Peace Prize is presented at a separate ceremony in Oslo, Norway.