Laila Alawa

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Laila Alawa
Born (1991-08-17) 17 August 1991 (age 32)
Ishøj, Denmark
NationalityAmerican
Alma materWellesley College
OccupationFounder & CEO of The Tempest
SpouseAfif Rahman
Websitewww.lailaalawa.com

Laila Alawa (born 1991) is a Syrian-American entrepreneur, psychology researcher, and writer. 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] In 2018, Alawa was named to Forbes 30 Under 30 Lists In America and Europe.[6][7]

Personal life[edit]

Alawa spent early years of her life living in Japan, where her father studied as an engineer, after moving from her original birthplace, Denmark - her mother's native land.[8][9] As a child, Alawa then moved to the United States with her five younger siblings and two parents. The Alawa family moved from upstate New York to Berkley, Massachusetts following the events of 9/11.[8] Alawa's mother was an educated woman with a degree in pedagogy, and chose to homeschool her children. She eventually received her American citizenship in 2015.[10]

Alawa is a practicing Muslim woman and has remarked on the struggles she has faced experiencing Islamophobia. She has remarked, " I've grown up as a visible Muslim, with people spitting on me, yelling at me, harassing me."[9]

Career[edit]

Alawa began her post-graduate career working on examining socio-cognitive processing at Princeton University.[11] 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.[12]

She decided to found the beta version of The Tempest, using research principles from her time at Princeton University.[13] She also felt that she and other diverse millennial women were not represented by mainstream media.[4][14] After she left her full-time digital branding job, Alawa began working at The Tempest full-time.[15]

Research[edit]

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.[16][17]

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][18]

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[edit]

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[19] and university protests against Richard Spencer.[20] The Tempest launched internationally at South by Southwest in March 2016.[21]

By November 2019, there were more than 8 million unique visitors each month, according to comScore.[22][23]

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.[24]

References[edit]

  1. ^ "APA PsycNet". psycnet.apa.org. Archived from the original on 27 January 2020. Retrieved 12 September 2020.
  2. ^ a b c 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. Archived from the original on 25 February 2022. Retrieved 13 November 2020.
  3. ^ a b THE EQUALITY EQUATION: Advancing the Participation of Women and Girls in STEM (PDF). World Bank Group. Archived (PDF) from the original on 25 February 2022. Retrieved 12 September 2020.
  4. ^ a b "The media site seeking to dethrone Buzzfeed". Cheddar. Archived from the original on 19 February 2020. Retrieved 25 August 2020.
  5. ^ "Women's Activist Stories". WomensActivism.nyc. Archived from the original on 25 February 2022. Retrieved 25 August 2020.
  6. ^ "Defining and driving the world of news and content". Forbes. Archived from the original on 20 January 2021. Retrieved 25 August 2020.
  7. ^ "Wellesley Alumna Embarks On New Path for Impact". 11 December 2018. Archived from the original on 28 September 2020. Retrieved 27 December 2019.
  8. ^ a b Wangsness, Lisa (8 September 2011). "Strangers in their own land, as they came of age". Boston.com. Archived from the original on 28 September 2021. Retrieved 28 September 2021.
  9. ^ a b O'Brien, Sara Ashley (19 June 2016). "Muslim woman deluged by 'hate tweets' after helping Homeland Security panel". CNNMoney. Archived from the original on 18 September 2020. Retrieved 28 September 2021.
  10. ^ "Meet Laila Alawa, the 25-Year old Syrian Immigrant on DHS Advisory Council Who Wants to Curb Your Speech Rights". CounterJihad. 15 June 2016. Archived from the original on 28 September 2021. Retrieved 28 September 2021.
  11. ^ 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. Archived from the original (PDF) on 8 February 2020 – via Semantic Scholar.
  12. ^ O'Brien, Sara Ashley (19 June 2016). "Muslim woman deluged by 'hate tweets' after helping Homeland Security panel". CNNMoney. Archived from the original on 18 September 2020. Retrieved 12 September 2020.
  13. ^ "The Magic Behind World Domination". TED Talks. Archived from the original on 14 June 2020. Retrieved 25 August 2020.
  14. ^ Prince, Richard. "College to Be Named After Gwen Ifill". Journal-isms. Archived from the original on 3 August 2020. Retrieved 12 September 2020.
  15. ^ "Best Entrepreneur Before 25 Podcasts | Most Downloaded Episodes". www.owltail.com. Archived from the original on 25 February 2022. Retrieved 12 September 2020.
  16. ^ Powell, Gary N. (20 August 2020). Gender and Leadership. SAGE. ISBN 978-1-5297-3804-9. Archived from the original on 25 February 2022. Retrieved 13 November 2020.
  17. ^ "Ruhlman Conference". Issuu. Archived from the original on 25 February 2022. Retrieved 12 September 2020.
  18. ^ "Stereotypes About Gender and Science: Women ≠ Scientists". doi:10.1177/0361684315622645. S2CID 147728174. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  19. ^ "Abortions are legal in South Africa – but half of them are done illegally". 19 May 2019. Archived from the original on 25 February 2022. Retrieved 12 September 2020.
  20. ^ "White supremacist Richard Spencer picked the wrong school to speak at. This is how we fought back". 19 October 2017. Archived from the original on 25 February 2022. Retrieved 25 August 2020.
  21. ^ "Memo to The Tempest Team". www.linkedin.com. Archived from the original on 25 February 2022. Retrieved 25 August 2020.
  22. ^ Maerz, Jennifer (25 April 2016). "These Millennial Muslim Women Are Clapping Back Against Stereotypes". Cosmopolitan. Archived from the original on 8 November 2020. Retrieved 25 August 2020.
  23. ^ "The WIL power: a way forward for women in a gender-neutral dialogue". Wamda. Archived from the original on 10 June 2020. Retrieved 25 August 2020.
  24. ^ "Hackers cívicos o cómo Voxe.org busca ayudar a los votantes". La Nacion (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 25 February 2022. Retrieved 25 August 2020.
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