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How do our gifts continue a legacy of ideas?

When women fought for equal pay in 1970s Britain, alumna Rita Stephen’s (1925-2020) creative mind was behind many of the legal cases making it happen. She was involved in numerous trade union negotiations and disputes, and, at LSE in 1957, she helped to ensure showers could be installed on campus so that fellow mature students from working-class backgrounds — who sometimes could not afford accommodation with bathrooms — had access to one.

Now, Rita’s legacy gift is helping an LSE student continue the spirit of asking the big questions around workplace power dynamics, employee voice, and inequality.

Sazid Ahmad is currently exploring possible avenues with his PhD with the Department of Management, focusing particularly on employee voice and looking at it from both an individual and collective perspective. 

I’m grateful to have received my scholarship. Being the first to receive such an astounding woman’s legacy is truly overwhelming and it feels I have very large shoes to fill. LSE is one of the best places for studying social sciences, particularly for an aspiring scholar of employment relations.

Sazid Ahmad, PhD candidate, Department of Management.

"I truly feel I am in the right place to ask the questions I want to ask," continues Sazid, "and to make meaningful contributions by synthesising the literature on employee voice, diversity and inclusion, work arrangements, trade unions, etc. and uncovering new grounds for theorisation."