ASPIRATIONALLY, AMY
DIVERSITY, EQUITY, AND INCLUSION
When I reflect on my current position and the career path I followed to get there, I struggle to identify the professional development opportunities I received along the way that were specifically designed to help me succeed as a woman in leadership. My personal journey into a leadership position was punctuated by conferences, workshops, and classes that always included a male audience and rarely created space for women to meaningfully engage in the vulnerable work of personal development. At most, I connected with my peers in women’s affinity groups, but even these meetups were brief and focused on commiseration rather than growth. I lacked actionable resources that were designed specifically for my growth as an aspiring female leader.
In some ways, I designed this project for myself – for the younger me who was eager to learn how to act like a leader, and for the me today who is still practicing different approaches to leading. This project enters the growing landscape of free online leadership development resources for women that host a range of engaging content from listicles and blog posts to videos, webinars, and self-paced courses, some of which are available for a fee. However, most of these sites lack resources for women to learn about specific leadership styles and how to practice them, as my project aims to do.
The goal of being as broadly inclusive as possible means that this project does not equitably contain supports for the women who are the most marginalized in the workplace, such as women of color, members of the LGBTQ community, and disabled women. This project also does not tap into the allyship of men, which many scholars and industry leaders consider to be an important component of closing the gender gap in leadership. Despite these limitations, the digital nature of this project means that it can grow and evolve to better include, represent, and lift up the women who remain underrepresented in positions of leadership.
EXPLORE THE CAPSTONE
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