It's All About Family For 3 Sisters Taking On Electricity

DENVER (CBS4) - Only 29 percent of science and engineering jobs are held by women. That's according to a report from the National Science Foundation in 2018. That's a number Girls & Science aims to change. This is the sixth year for the event at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science.

On March 7, girls and their families (yes, brothers are invited) will get to explore more than two dozen experiences related to the STEAM fields. That includes a chance to actually meet the women leading the way. Among those women is the three Ellis sisters. Jody Hutchinson, Jamie Ellis and JaNeese Worley all work for Xcel Energy.

Jody is a planner putting together the gas and eclectic systems that power our homes. JaNeese is a senior operations work coordinator who coordinators construction sites. Jamie is a design technician who is learning all about what happens in the field to get electricity into your home.

They have different titles and jobs, but they all have the same goal: making sure we have the electricity we need.

This road to Xcel started with their father.

"I went to work for my father," explains Jody. "He was a great provider for all of us. He got into this industry and at one point at the beginning of our careers, all three of us worked for him."

Now they want to share the lessons they learned from their father with other girls. That's why they are embracing Girls & Science.

"It's just a great place to start to come see the opportunities that are available," Jodie said.

And these sisters want those girls to bring their brothers along.

"Just to see that you can have, just being women in the industry, I think it's great to come out and see all the different places where that can happen," she said.

"It's awesome to have little girls growing up wanting to be in the industry," JaNeese said. "Thinking there are no limitations. You can be whatever you want to be."