Founded in 2018, LeadHERship is an international organization dedicated to tackling the gender gap and empowering girls through education, introspection, and awareness. Founder and Director Neha Saggi coordinates a network of students who hold conferences, discussions, and other events to help members of their communities learn about gender bias and various societal gender norms as well as their individual leadership strengths and how to use them to help girls take a seat at the table.
Neha has completed 30+ projects in 10 countries so far!
Neha has completed 30+ projects in 10 countries so far!
Upcoming Events:
Constructive Ways to Combat Gender Bias: Workshop with Neha Saggi
Read more about it HERE!
Sign up HERE!
Her Journey in STEM: Round 2
Details coming soon!
Constructive Ways to Combat Gender Bias: Workshop with Neha Saggi
Read more about it HERE!
Sign up HERE!
Her Journey in STEM: Round 2
Details coming soon!
Closest Upcoming LeadHERship Student Conference:
Manuela from Rio de Janeiro! Date TBD.
Manuela from Rio de Janeiro! Date TBD.
Closest Upcoming Project Release:
Video Series in partnership with Women's Health Awareness Foundation: episode on the Me Too Movement!
Watch the latest episode HERE.
Video Series in partnership with Women's Health Awareness Foundation: episode on the Me Too Movement!
Watch the latest episode HERE.
New Podcast Episodes Every Sunday!
Upcoming Feature: Celebrating Episode 15!
Release Date: 11/1/20
See HERE to learn more about the LeadHERship Podcast!
Upcoming Feature: Celebrating Episode 15!
Release Date: 11/1/20
See HERE to learn more about the LeadHERship Podcast!
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No. 1
What I Did
I achieved the highest award in Girl Scouting with this project, but I didn't want to stop there. I've always noticed the lack of female leadership throughout the nation, and I decided to educate others about why this is the case. Awareness is the first step toward change. So, I've expanded this conference series to create a national organization. Any girl/adult can reach out and I will assist them in holding their own conference/discussion using the materials and guidelines I've created. This way, I can reach more girls easily while simultaneously improving that one girl's leadership, organization, management, and communication skills until she can do the same for other girls interested in holding a conference! I have also created other activities for girls of all ages that are available for women/teachers/troop leaders to use!
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No. 2
Why I Did It
Lack of female leadership is an issue that I am passionate about and one that affects a multitude of people throughout the nation, and my Girl Scout Gold Award was the perfect way to do something about it. Women are underrepresented in the leadership of almost every career field in the United States. 60% of publicly traded organizations have no female board members. At the current rate of change, it will take until the year 2117 for women to reach parity with men in the United States Congress. I could keep listing statistics like this for days. I have experienced this myself as class president, as a Girl Scout, as a student, as a proud feminist, and as a teenage girl in the society we live in. It isn't right, and we need action.
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No. 3
What You Can Do
Get involved! Every conference so far has been youth led, when high school girls get in touch with me and I give them my conference materials and advice for every step of the process. This benefits them as well as the girls they who will attend their conference, and from then on they become advisors for future conference leaders! I have also created materials for women/teachers/troop leaders to use for girls who are in elementary and middle school.
Find out how you can hold the LeadHERship conference at your school and how to become involved in Girl Scouting by checking out the "What You Can Do" page! Feel free to contact me at any time with questions. I really hope you'll get involved! |
First "LeadHERship" Conference
A conference held at the University School of Nashville on October 5th, 2019 by me, Ambassador Girl Scout Neha Saggi, in order to earn my Girl Scout Gold Award. It lasted 3.5 hours with 43 wonderful attendees. Here's a snippet from my welcome packet:
Here’s a bit of background. The focus of Girl Scouting is empowering girls, and the Gold Award requires girls to make a sustainable change in their community by addressing the root cause of a problem. The issue that I am passionate about is the lack of female representation in leadership and management positions, and I thought it fit extremely well with the overall goals of Girl Scouting. I’ve observed that at my school and many others, over half of student council and club leaders are female, so I didn’t understand why this doesn’t translate to professional settings. I did a bit of reading, and I identified three overall root causes of this problem.
1. implicit and explicit gender bias
2. lack of precedent and current representation
3. lack of education about gender bias and other factors that cause gender discrimination
I then decided that the best thing I could do for girls in my community was to educate them about why this obstacle exists in order to equip us to change the status quo. So here we are today! I'm so glad you all are here.
LeadHERship Now
Since the initial conference, my focus has been on spreading my work. I've turned it into a network. High School girls in different states have been using my materials and guidelines to hold their own LeadHERship conferences. Once they've held one, they're qualified to help other girls hold their own. In addition to structured conference materials, I've created activity guides for girls of all ages. They range from activities for elementary schoolers on setting and achieving goals to lessons for high schoolers on speech patterns. Go to "What You Can Do" to check some of them out, and get in contact for access to all of them! You can also feature on my podcast, or reach out to suggest a project that we can collaborate on. Thank you for your interest and I hope to get in contact with you soon!
*Note: For security reasons I do not post pictures or names from LeadHERship events. If you would like to hold a conference and want to advertise it using your full name, you must do so on your own platforms!
*Note: For security reasons I do not post pictures or names from LeadHERship events. If you would like to hold a conference and want to advertise it using your full name, you must do so on your own platforms!
