At the current rate, it will take 134 years to close the gender leadership gap, meaning that we won’t see gender parity in leadership within our lifetimes. So many of the global challenges we face today intersect with and exacerbate gender inequality. When gender issues are left unaddressed, they lead to cascading effects that impact communities across generations.
Women’s leadership is crucial to creating fair and sustainable societies.
Women’s leadership refers to women’s active participation, influence, and decision-making capacity in various sectors of society, including their community and professional roles. For us at Wedu, leadership goes beyond formal roles and definitions like CEO or president; it pertains to the skills and abilities necessary to guide, influence, or inspire others toward a common goal. These skills need to be fostered, and historically, women have been disregarded as leaders, leading to their continued exclusion- both passive and active- from opportunities to develop the skills and confidence needed to lead the direction of their own lives and the initiatives they are passionate about.
Wedu’s one-month-long Rise to the Occasion campaign aims to gather allies to amplify the impacts of mentorship, training and community support in bridging the gender leadership gap. Over 12 years, we have witnessed the transformational impacts of enabling women to pursue their leadership journey. We have matched 2,320 mentorship pairs, facilitated leadership training with 2,853 women and funded the further education of over 117 women and counting.
Bridging the gender leadership gap necessitates fostering a leadership culture founded on equality and respect
In 2025, we aim to reach more women in the region and, just as importantly, scale deep the impacts of mentorship and leadership training. We believe that bridging the gender leadership gap is not just about fulfilling a quota but about creating meaningful and long-lasting change by fostering a leadership culture founded on equality and respect, showcasing diverse representations of leaders, and mobilising allies to dismantle unjust and oppressive systems.
“Imagine a world where women leaders’ cups are so full, that we are able to extend a helping hand to the next generation of women leaders.”
In the three weeks this campaign has been running, we have generously received 15,000+ USD in donations from individuals and foundations. To our donors, we are eternally grateful for your support and for standing up for the future you believe in. Our donation portal is open until December 2! Regardless of size, all contributions help us continue supporting women leaders across South and Southeast Asia. Head over to our donations page to contribute.
The funds raised will enable the Wedu team to continue providing mentorship and leadership training to dedicated women leaders in the South and Southeast Asia region completely free of charge.
To change the world, we need to build community
Any woman who has taken part in Wedu offerings is automatically part of the Wedu community and can attend educational workshops, is invited to learning sessions with expert guest speakers, and is alerted of development and professional opportunities. In tandem to providing training and mentorship, Wedu also invests in building a community of women leaders who together increasingly make women’s leadership the norm, provide meaningful support to each other, and inspire other women to believe in and embark on their leadership journey.
The Wedu community encompasses 5,000+ community members and allies, 1,525 lifelong Wedu women leaders, and 1,700 mentors who continue to propel us towards a world where half of all leaders are women.
As we approach the end of this campaign, I’d like to spend a moment dreaming together.
Imagine a world where women leaders are represented in every sphere of influence: on boards, in government, in leadership roles of corporations, as community builders. Women leaders as the ones leading and creating solutions to the climate crisis and receiving lifelong support to do this critical planetary work. Women leaders share the burden and responsibility of unpaid care work equally with the men in our communities and our gender-diverse allies.
Imagine a world where women leaders are the norm in the fastest-growing industries globally: women leaders in Technology and the Digital Economy, women leaders in e-commerce, and women leaders innovating and rolling out renewable energy globally.
Imagine a world where women are economically empowered and thriving, from small business owners to shareholders of multinational companies.
In this version of the world, parenting and caring for one’s Elders are recognised and rewarded as acts of leadership, and the infrastructure exists on a societal level for all women carers to thrive as they care for others.
In this version of the world, women leaders’ cups are so full that they are able to extend a helping hand to the next generation of women leaders without burning ourselves out. Instead, we extend a hand, and together, women leaders across multiple generations laugh with abandon, our bodies breathe freely, our bodies are relaxed and full of joy.
Together, with our allies we have created a world where not only are all women leaders thriving, so are our families, our communities, our planet, and the next generation of girls and women, thriving alongside us.
This is the world that Wedu is creating. Let’s keep believing in a fairer future by investing in women leading the change.
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