Today marks the second day of TEDWomen 2015! As the conference continues, so do many of the nearly 250 TEDxWomen events watching it worldwide! To celebrate, we’re featuring talks that look at the state of women in the world today.

Despite lasting stereotypes that STEM fields are meant for men alone, many, many women are transforming the fields of science, technology, engineering and math — and changing how the public thinks about these fields. Below, talks from five of those women:

Black Girls Code | Kimberly Bryant | TEDxKC Kimberly Bryant is the founder of Black Girls Code, an organization that hosts workshops to teach girls of color coding skills in a fun and empowering environment. Girls and women of color are vastly underrepresented in STEM fields, says Bryant, and in a talk at TEDxKC, Bryant explains why she came to start Black Girls Code, citing the influence of her “geeky” daughter and a hope to close the gender and race gap in STEM fields, for her and other young girls’ sake.

EyeWire, a game to map the brain | Amy Robinson | TEDxAmsterdamAmy Robinson is part of a team at MIT working to map the brain. How? Through a game. At TEDxAmsterdam she explains how that game works and the ways we all can participate in this crowd-sourced quest to better understand our brains.

The unseen threat of noise in our oceans | Kristin Westdal | TEDxVancouver
At TEDxVancouver, marine biologist Kristin Westdal introduces a growing threat to the health of Arctic marine mammals — noise. Animals like narwhals, beluga and killer whales rely on their keen sense of hearing to communicate over long distances, locate food far below the ocean’s surface and keep track of their breathing holes, Westdal says, and processes like commercial shipping and oil and gas exploration have started to disrupt the mammals’ well-being with high levels of noise.

Math isn’t just for boys: Changing the gender narrative with animation | Jen Oxley | TEDxMidAtlanticJen Oxley is not working in a STEM field herself, but is wholly frustrated with the stereotypes discouraging girls to pursue careers in these fields. At TEDxMidAtlantic, Oxley shares how she uses her work as an animator to combat these stereotypes — creating girl characters who are skilled at and love science, math and technology.

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TEDx Innovations is a blog celebrating creativity and innovation in TEDx communities around the globe. From design to tech to social activities, the TEDx Innovations blog highlights the best of the best worldwide.
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