Laila Alawa

Laila Alawa (born 1991) is an American entrepreneur, researcher, and life coach. Her work on examining gendered stereotypes in STEM led to results displaying continued issues in discrimination and prejudice against female scientists.[1][2][3] She is recognized by The New York Times as an innovator for her global media & entertainment company, The Tempest.[4][5] Alawa was named to Forbes 30 Under 30 Lists In America and Europe.[6]

Laila Alawa
Born (1991-08-17) 17 August 1991
Ishoj, Denmark
Alma materWellesley College
OccupationFounder & CEO of The Tempest
Websitewww.lailaalawa.com

In 2020, she founded Laila Alawa International.[7] She also started the bespoke jewelry company, LAILA + HUDA, where every purchase benefits a women-owned charity.[8]

Career

Alawa began her post-graduate career working on examining socio-cognitive processing at Princeton University.[9] Following her work at Princeton, she moved to Washington, DC, and explored digital branding, journalism, and communications work. During that time, she also worked on Capitol Hill.[10]

She decided to found the beta version of The Tempest, using research principles from her time at Princeton University.[11] She also felt that she and other diverse millennial women were not represented by mainstream media.[4][12] After she left her full-time digital branding job, Alawa began working at The Tempest full-time.[13]

Research

Alawa studies organizational leadership, social interactions, and stereotypes in real-world contexts. In particular, she is interested in the unconscious assessments of oneself and others, resulting in in-group and out-group classifications.

At Wellesley College, Alawa worked on examining the effects of stereotypes as possible gendered obstacles to women in science.[14][15]

Later published in the Psychology of Women Quarterly, the study established that overlap in perceptions was due to stereotypes about the agency and communion of women, men, and scientists.[2][16]

To date, the findings have been used in more than 200 studies exploring STEM and gendered representation, as well as the World Bank Group and Parliament of the United Kingdom to seek support for STEM education initiatives.[2][3]

The Tempest

While originally focused on personal essays and editorials exploring gender and ethnic equality, the media platform gained new attention when it began incorporating perspectives of more than 1200 thought-leaders from more than 90 countries, including subjects such as the cultural stigma of abortion in South Africa and university protests against Richard Spencer. The Tempest launched internationally at South by Southwest in March 2016.[17]

By November 2019, there were more than 8 million unique visitors each month, according to comScore.[18][19]

In 2016, Alawa managed a collaboration with Voxe, a French NGO that created a system for comparing the platforms of political candidates to help voters.[20]

References
  1. "APA PsycNet". psycnet.apa.org. Retrieved 12 September 2020.
  2. Charles, Maria; Thébaud, Sarah (6 December 2018). Gender and STEM: Understanding Segregation in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. MDPI. ISBN 978-3-03897-147-4.
  3. THE EQUALITY EQUATION: Advancing the Participation of Women and Girls in STEM (PDF). World Bank Group.
  4. "The media site seeking to dethrone Buzzfeed". Cheddar. Retrieved 25 August 2020.
  5. "Women's Activist Stories". WomensActivism.nyc.
  6. "Defining and driving the world of news and content". Forbes.
  7. "Wellesley Alumna Embarks On New Path for Impact". 11 December 2018. Retrieved 27 December 2019.
  8. Dr Monique Y. Wells (11 December 2014). "Successful Woman Entrepreneurs Give Back". Retrieved 27 December 2019.
  9. Coman, Alin; Hirst, William (2015). "Social Identity and Socially Shared Retrieval-Induced Forgetting: The Effects of Group Membership" (PDF). Journal of Experimental Psychology. 144 (4): 717–722. doi:10.1037/xge0000077. PMID 25938179. S2CID 21226426 – via Semantic Scholar.
  10. O'Brien, Sara Ashley (19 June 2016). "Muslim woman deluged by 'hate tweets' after helping Homeland Security panel". CNNMoney. Retrieved 12 September 2020.
  11. "The Magic Behind World Domination". TED Talks.
  12. Prince, Richard. "College to Be Named After Gwen Ifill". Journal-isms. Retrieved 12 September 2020.
  13. "Best Entrepreneur Before 25 Podcasts | Most Downloaded Episodes". www.owltail.com. Retrieved 12 September 2020.
  14. Powell, Gary N. (20 August 2020). Gender and Leadership. SAGE. ISBN 978-1-5297-3804-9.
  15. "Ruhlman Conference". Issuu. Retrieved 12 September 2020.
  16. "Stereotypes About Gender and Science: Women ≠ Scientists". Psychology of Women Quarterly. doi:10.1177/0361684315622645. S2CID 147728174. Retrieved 25 August 2020.
  17. "Memo to The Tempest Team". www.linkedin.com. Retrieved 25 August 2020.
  18. Maerz, Jennifer (25 April 2016). "These Millennial Muslim Women Are Clapping Back Against Stereotypes". Cosmopolitan. Retrieved 25 August 2020.
  19. "The WIL power: a way forward for women in a gender-neutral dialogue". Wamda. Retrieved 25 August 2020.
  20. "Hackers cívicos o cómo Voxe.org busca ayudar a los votantes". La Nacion (in Spanish). Retrieved 25 August 2020.
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