WANTING to feature ambitious women who were working to make a difference in their chosen fields and industries, Astro AWANI senior editor Melisa Melina Idris conceptualised the networkâs The Future is Female in 2019, that has now returned after a brief hiatus.
Melisa said she has noticed that despite how well women advocate issues and raise other women, they are oddly uncomfortable with doing the same when it comes to their own accomplishments.
âI think gender roles play a part in the lack of self-advocacy in women compared to men. We worry about being judged as âarrogantâ or âbraggingâ, so many of us rely on letting the work speak for itself. But when we women donât actively advocate to make our work more visible, our voices are lost,â she added.
This is something she seeks to address through The Future is Female, which turns two next month.
The show receives a lot of guest nominations, but Melisa pointed out that almost all the guests who have been on the show were recommended and introduced to her by other women.
âI love that this show is built on women lifting other womenâ.
A step in a different direction
Despite her long tenure in journalism, it was not something Melisa initially pursued.
âI was very single-minded about studying economics at university, it was the only course I applied for. Iâd fallen in love with the subject, from the very first lesson I had in Form 4. I found it fascinating. Itâs a discipline that combines behavioural psychology, politics, history and math, with a real-world application,â she explained.
Further along her studies, Melisa said with better understanding of markets and economies, came a sense of growing frustration towards economic inequality and social injustice that stemmed from what she read.
âThat, quite naturally I think, led me to the doorstep of journalismâ.
