|
Meet the FounderNeha Saggi - LeadHERship Founder and DirectorThank you for checking out LeadHERship! I'm so glad you're here and I hope you'll get involved with a project.
Here's a little bit about me. I'm currently a student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. I founded LeadHERship back in 2018 and now run the organization. In this role, I direct projects, assist students with LeadHERship conferences, host a podcast, and lead outreach efforts. My favorite part about this organization is learning about the gender equality movement around the world and getting to collaborate with others working toward similar goals as me. In my free time, I enjoy baking, writing, spending time with loved ones, and working with nonprofits and organizations around the world. Keep scrolling for some FAQ and more information about how I founded LeadHERship. |
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
HOW DID LEADHERSHIP START?
I've always noticed the lack of female leadership in the United States, and I've experienced the effect of gender bias in my own life. As a lifelong Girl Scout, I knew this was the issue I wanted to tackle for my Gold Award. I spent a year planning, interviewing, and researching, ultimately holding my first LeadHERship conference in October 2019. Inspired by the feedback I received, I spent the next month transforming LeadHERship into a functioning organization, recruiting girls who live everywhere from Tennessee to Malaysia to hold their own conferences. You can learn more about the first event below and at the "What I Did" and "Why I Did It" pages. Anyone can reach out and I will assist them in holding their own conference/discussion using the materials and guidelines I've created. In addition, we have many ongoing projects including a podcast and many collaborations with other nonprofits and organizations.
HOW CAN I HOLD A CONFERENCE?
Get involved! High schoolers get in touch with me, and I give them my conference materials and a for every step of the process. Find out more by checking out the "What You Can Do" page! Feel free to contact me at any time with questions.
A CONFERENCE WOULD BE TOO MUCH FOR ME RIGHT NOW. HOW ELSE CAN I GET INVOLVED?
I have created materials (discussion guides, group activities, Zoom friendly lessons) for you to use with girls of all ages. You can also get involved by attending an event, listening to the podcast, and supporting the projects on social media.
WHY SHOULD I HOLD A CONFERENCE?
The gender gap is real, and awareness is the first step toward change. You will reach so many people and impact them for the rest of their lives. Additionally, holding a conference benefits you as well as the people attending! You will build leadership, organization, management, and communication skills, and you will build a strong connection with your participants. You will also learn so much about yourself and your strengths as a leader. I couldn't encourage you enough to jump in and get started.
HOW DO YOU KNOW THERE'S A GENDER GAP?
Lack of female leadership is an issue that I am passionate about and one that affects a people across the world. 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 gender bias and other consequences of the gender gap 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. Check out the "Why I Did It" page for more information and resources to learn more about the issue.
HOW CAN I GET MY GOLD AWARD?
Check out the "What I Did" page to learn more about the Gold Award process!
IS LEADHERSHIP AFFILIATED WITH GIRL SCOUTS USA?
No. LeadHERship began as a Gold Award project and has been nominated nationally, but it was never affiliated with Girl Scouts USA. LeadHERship has always been an independent organization.
CAN I DONATE TO LEADHERSHIP?
No. While your generosity is appreciated, LeadHERship does not take donations as none of its projects currently require funding. Please donate to other related causes that could make better use of the funds.
First "LeadHERship" Conference
A conference held at the University School of Nashville on October 5th, 2019 in order to earn my Girl Scout Gold Award. It lasted 3.5 hours and included 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 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!
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 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!
LeadHERship Now
Since the initial conference, my focus has been on spreading my work. I've turned it into a network. High School girls across the world 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 events. 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!
