Shirin Ahmed and Simrin Ahmed, Co-Founders, WOMENTOR
One just has to visit their local bookstore or start a Goodreads account, to gauge the rising popularity of books on women’s leadership and support for other women. If Sheryl Sandberg’s Lean In does not inspire you to lean in, then you’ll probably identify with being a Sophia Amoruso’s Girl Boss. Otherwise, you’ve probably found inspiration in the videos of famous YouTubers, or just talking with inspiring women around you.
Womentor was born out of community outreach-talks at schools, which Shirin attended on behalf of Vodafone New Zealand. Engaging with schoolgirls developed the passion to build something that was sustainable and addressed an important issue. Having participated in youth projects and conferences since we were young, we found that there was a need that was never met for us, at school. A need that even today, is not being met for many schoolgirls. As soon as they finish their NCEA exams, young people are expected to make a serious decision about what they do after secondary school – a difficult decision to make at the age of 16-19.
Having spent at least an entire decade in school, with subjects/class streams based on a generic format; to decide within a short time frame what one will do after school – which can affect a major chunk of one’s life - can be a massive gamble. Especially in this economic climate, where tertiary fees are on the rise, scholarships limited to those who excel and very few first/second chances are available.
As soon as they finish their NCEA exams, young people are expected to make a serious decision about what they do after secondary school – a difficult decision to make at the age of 16-19.
How does one go about setting and achieving goals?
Can someone achieve them through multiple career-pathways?
What are the skill-sets one requires to achieve their goals, and more importantly how transferable are these skill-sets in each industry?
Are there various ways to get a degree or qualification? Will a degree be useful at all in the first place?
Students should know the answers to these questions before investing in 3-4 years of further study, and most likely incurring some form of student loan or debt. Womentor set out to try and answer these questions for schoolgirls, in the form of mentoring, and creating networking platforms for students to engage with women from various fields and industries. The exposure to different professionals would not only encourage students to find a potential career-pathway of their interest, but also ascertain the various skill-sets they wish to develop, in the future.
Furthermore, we also wanted these professionals to share their life lessons and what they thought of their occupations, to better inform students of the challenges and opportunities they encountered. This may seem like anecdotal advice one shares over a coffee with a friend. But if schoolgirls had a platform where they could network and talk with inspiring women - and more importantly, be exposed to realistic advice - it would further aid help them in making invaluable choices about their futures.
So what are some of the lessons we have learnt since Womentor was born? Over the course of two and a half years of running the programme, we were exposed to important experiences, all of which have undoubtedly become the biggest contributors to our growth and learning.
Passion and flexibility is critical
Passion is critical to run a voluntary organisation. Without passion for gender development and giving back to the community, neither the drive for this project nor the resilience in the face of challenges would exist. The diversity of perspectives and experiences of women we have met and had the pleasure of working with - through Womentor - definitely contributes to this passion. Another lesson we learnt is that flexibility is key to succeeding. Many a time events do not go according to plan, spanners are thrown in the works unexpectedly; and mentors have their own professional lives, all of which requires us to be flexible.
If you are not making mistakes, you are not learning
Like most start-ups, Womentor did not grow without making mistakes. Mistakes are almost as important as passion. They not only taught us what not to do, but also what can be done better. We found some fantastic professionals who were very inspiring, but also realised that professional success does not necessarily equate to being a good mentor. Looking at the model of our programme, we also found that while there were merits in one-to-one mentoring, it was not necessarily what schoolgirls needed. We found group mentoring to be more beneficial. Such mistakes only helped us to improve and make the programme more effective.
Network, network, network!
Networking can be difficult. It can be daunting for some, to approach and engage with unfamiliar people at conferences and workshops. It requires practice. But networking is important for success in any venture. Building and maintaining relationships with people is necessary to create successful organisations. If one wants advice or different perspectives, one needs to become comfortable approaching people from various fields and walks of life. One also needs to cultivate the mind-set that networking never ends. In the case of Womentor, we found that networking not only helped us in finding potential mentors, but we also gained invaluable insight and guidance from other professionals. Giving students and professional women opportunities to network reinforces the importance of this skill.
As a result of some of these lessons, it has become obvious that the process - rather than the end result of the project - has been the driving force and the biggest contributor to the development of Womentor. While Womentor cannot provide all the answers to gender development and equality, we also realise that success does not transpire overnight. It requires a lot of passion and hard work. Fortunately, many like-minded young women in New Zealand share this passion, and we hope that - with their help - Womentor can continue to grow in the future.