Source: Massey University
When the role finished, Rhema and her husband moved around New Zealand for different jobs and experiences, but ever since her discovery of leadership studies, she knew she wanted her career to revolve around running leadership development programmes for women and helping women grow. In 2019, Rhema decided it was time to make that happen, so she committed to a PhD.
“My research learns from the experiences of women who grew up as ‘third culture kids’ to advance global leadership development by understanding the challenges that these children experience with each international move.
My research gives a voice to an underrepresented group because all my participants are women of colour, who have spent significant parts of their youth living in different countries.
They share their life stories, which are understood through a critical race feminist lens to appreciate the racist, sexist challenges they experienced from a young age and the coping strategies they used to adapt into their new socio-cultural contexts.”
Rhema feels blessed to have so many strong and influential women in her life, many of whom she has met along her Massey journey.
“My best friend is one of the first people I met at Massey. Ten years on, our friendship is stronger, and we have seen each other through every phase of our womanhood.
I believe that I can learn from every woman who is in my life and the beauty of being a woman is that we get to share our unique definition of womanhood and support each other.”
For Rhema, International Women’s Day is a universal reminder to recognise and celebrate women’s achievements and plights.
“It should be part of our everyday culture to celebrate diversity and provide platforms and opportunities to share. Our stories are our most valuable assets because they are unique to us, and we can only learn from one another through telling our stories.”
