An example of leadership in STEM- Meet Emaan Gohar

The importance of collective advocacy   

Emaan’s WiEIT journey started with the Gender Equity Ambassador Program, where she was able to actively contribute to gender diversity in STEM through the WiEIT School Outreach Program and keep developing her knowledge on leadership and inclusion via the range of workshops offered to Ambassadors. The experience and knowledge gained in this program were ey to secure a paid role as a WiEIT Student Promotional Representative of UTS (SPROUT). Emaan’s favourite thing about the WiEIT community is how proactive it is and how included she feels. In her view, connections are fundamental and now we have so many different ways of creating community and sense of belonging - even with being part of a Microsoft Teams channel counts! From the School Holiday Outreach Workshops, where she was able to facilitate cyber security:

It's so good to see students do something in front of your own eyes and I think it's a really good initiative everyone should do.

Emaan Gohar

On diversity, inclusion, and women’s participation and retention  

For her final year capstone project, Emaan is currently investigating female students’ participation in STEM at school, university, and the workplace. In fact, women make up only 15% of the workforce in STEM (2021 data). She highlighted the complexities behind the challenges, and how hard it is to attract, retain and progress women in STEM careers. Indeed, among other challenges, societal norms, stereotypes, and perceptions of eventual careers can have a negative impact on women’s belief in their abilities in STEM subjects and on their aspirations to STEM careers¹.  

True leadership is inclusive

When we asked her about leadership, she assured us that the goal is not to leave anyone behind; a leader is someone who can read the room and offer the best advice.   

To me, being a leader is actually accepting everyone in the room, acknowledging them and then also challenging people at the same time and allowing those groups of people to move forward with you.

Emaan Gohar

Through the combination of her actions the WiEIT STEM X School Outreach Program, involvement in university and her capstone project research, Emaan embodies the capabilities of individuals to lead diversity, inclusion, and retention in engineering. Emaan was an inspiration to talk to and an incredible part of the WiEIT community!  

Stay tuned for more inspiring stories!

Byline: Amber Rizvi, Gender Equity Ambassador and part of the Communications Team.

Interview: Amber Rizvi and Victoria Migueles, Program Officer.

¹ 2022 STEM Equity Monitor, Australian Government