why is feminist leadership important

This then not only places it in this really interesting position of being seen as only accessible by a privileged group of people that can afford to 'do self care', but it also lends itself to a very individualistic view towards it. But now I ask myself this new question: Do I have to stop myself from criticising other women in business who argue that gender is no longer relevant, or who suggest that because their career has never been impeded then there mustnt be an issue? transnational feminist rhetorics gendered leadership isbn daughters activism destiny pedagogy cultural studies politics iron ladies global It saddens me that women who have benefited from the work of those who came before them feel they cant embrace the ongoing work of driving towards gender equality, or use the phrase feminist, which is simply about advocating for women to be treated as equal human beings.

Feminist Leadership is a concept developed and practised mainly by womens movements in the Global South. With its initial focus on movie stars and Hollywood, there is absolutely a risk that the Me Too / TimesUp movement could be subject to this criticism, and we need to make sure that this kind of backlash doesnt prevent real change from occurring on the back of this movement. Feminist leaders, whether they are women or men, have a conscious recognition of the problems and challenges caused by gender inequality, and they are constantly striving to address this inequality through both what they do and how they do it. I am a white person: my upbringing was small town and monocultural. At IWDA, we acknowledge the Traditional Owners of the land on which we work and live. The more I learned about IWDA and its work, the more I understood that I had a heck of a lot of my own unconscious bias about other cultures, other religions, and the role of women in other countries. So I've talked a little bit about some of the things that we we discussed on the course that really helped staff and organisations think about how their team how their organisation can be more inclusive.

However, many of these same women deny their projected power, or those aspects of power attributed to a person on the basis of their social ranking, personality, or other aspects of perceived identity. feminist And just acknowledging I think that we're facing really difficult times and being really open about that - not expecting that we're going to be able to continue on as business as usual.If someone listening feels like their organisation could benefit from adopting feminist leadership principles in the workplace, how could they encourage senior management to invest in a course like yours?So I think it's about an organisation understanding if and what the benefits for them could be. They showed me how important it was to not be a bystander, to call out inequalities that exist, to identify lack of opportunities, to do what I could to help create paths to equality, to empower women to help their own communities and find their own voices. Your new initiative is named We are Feminist Leaders. If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with it.

Youve recently launched a (now sold out!) 0000011123 00000 n This moves beyond gender into the sphere of power and privilege. ( hV9^2 !VEHF42-zAy Lx;2\# G+Wjk$'"{ w)k_w$z4Pmc Ec:*K"3L2EYLplcgZ25"@T)b.9wqMF)F(?C g6B>:Ja/5a6c_`11ZEh{H^byiLG)AGabR EGlXpZzc"qbH Bjrg4Q_thf1PQg&tQiG;dgADH Think about what that does to the perception of a young child.women can be my heroes. A BIG thank you to Natalie for joining us on the podcast and uncovering the benefits of introducing feminist leadership principles in the workplace. Natalie started her career in campaigning for NUS and Oxfam. In a patriarchal society, we are all too familiar with power attributed to persons of certain identities of gender, race, age, and so forth.

Shes also one of the most influential women in media in Australia, and a globally recognised leader, strategist and communicator. 6NmTd-\o~!Tm+`U_6*uV-

What we talk about is doing things like assessing what happens once women are at the table. There are certainly some promising signs that this may be evolving, that Feminist Leadership is finally being recognised as a NECESSARY force for change, and to be frank, it is about time. 0000021435 00000 n

oJo4 V+{ YSmiHf6H}_+x;@s1}j+K>Q58ZwBNnFAlsXwwBC $w!}Jsd.y~\ Y endstream endobj 40 0 obj <>stream feminist beyonce femaleness femininity apologetic chosen respected longer want 0000010207 00000 n So in addition to monitoring the proportion of women leaders in social impact leadership, we advocate for Feminist Leadership. How would you define the word 'feminist'?

&Be9_jM $IWEk{2 T})a# With these case studies from organisations who have made the FAIR SHARE Commitment, we hope to inspire and encourage others to start or persevere in their journey towards gender equity and Feminist Leadership. Over the last years, thanks in part to the work of feminist human rights organisation CREAin India, it has started to make its way into the international social impact sector, with organisations such as ActionAid and Oxfam embracing and implementing Feminist Leadership as part of their organisational strategy.

And what we know is that there are many examples of when women get into leadership positions they don't necessarily have the capacity, the power, the access to decision making that enables them to lead in a different way. We talk about feminist leadership as something that is about applying feminist principles to the way that we lead so that we can achieve social justice aims, and that that enables everyone to thrive at work. Do they have capacity to make decisions and to use power equally? academia feminist sexism surviving strategies leadership Deanne Weir is a long term friend and supporter of IWDA.

What is the worst that could happen? something an individual is responsible for. We ended with acknowledging, that the way forward was to recognise and integrate our feminine and masculine aspects, available to each of us in our leadership irrespective of our gender. collaborative, relational, consensus-building, open, intuitive, and so on. 0000006726 00000 n This formed a huge part of my own development and understanding of what feminism meant to me, and what it could mean more broadly. Importantly, feminist leadership is something that can be practised by anyone, no matter who they are. As part of our International Women's Day podcast mini-series we welcome Natalie Brook, Co-Founder of We Are Feminist Leaders, a brand new initiative designed for emerging leaders (working in any sector) who would like to lead in a radically different way. I've seen examples of staff being given an extra amount in their paycheck every month to spend on a well being activity, whatever that might be, again, this aligns with the trust element because you're giving people the choice to invest in something that's appropriate to their needs, not necessarily something that your Chief Exec thinks is appropriate.

So here is the first thing: a Feminist leader can be a man or woman. I was watching the Golden Globe Awards telecast which was a very big moment for the MeToo movement, with some incredible speeches and calls to arms, including the now infamous Oprah for President speech. Interested in finding out a bit more about us and what its like to be part of Bright? And you know, I think it's quite shocking that it took until February for our Prime Minister to directly address parents - 10 months after it started. Unconscious bias is holding us all back, by preventing women from accessing opportunities, and by putting unrealistic and harmful expectations on men. Second wave feminism from the 70s of which women like me were the beneficiaries- was often criticised for being about white middle class women, for leaving behind indigenous women, women of colour and those with disability or of other cultures. 0000017042 00000 n nh; )7+

0000000916 00000 n

0000004712 00000 n IWDAs ethos of working WITH women in other countries, of talking to local womens organisations, understanding their needs and challenges, and then helping to build their capability to drive change in their own communities: that is inspiring Feminist Leadership.

For todays discussion, I wanted to reflect on some different examples of Feminist Leadership that I have seen throughout my career, which has covered various sectors, and comment on what might be coming next. My background is in working on gender and women's rights projects which began through volunteering in a rape crisis centre, many moons ago. I think other leaders have been much more compassionate and careful about the way they've communicated about that. 0000001205 00000 n

Feminist Leadership is about speaking up and continually advocating for change. 0000013632 00000 n Lockdown is a very strange time and alongside the rest of the UK, I'm a bit bored! Welcome, Natalie! 0000029745 00000 n On the other hand, women leaders, quite simply, are leaders who happen to be women; but if they dont apply a feminist lens to their leadership, if they dont recognise issues of inequality that are inherent within their own universe, if they dont use their leadership to try and achieve change: then they are just leaders who reinforce the status quo. A BIG thank you to Natalie for joining us on the podcast and uncovering the benefits of introducing feminist leadership principles in the workplace. There is no doubt that some of the women involved in professional organisations are more in the mindset of Women Leaders than Feminist Leaders, that they are thinking about how to benefit from the current power structures as opposed to transforming them, but I like to think they are the minority. As I moved into my career, the question of different motivations behind activism started to arise. But the speech that struck me the most was one that pointed out that it was important not to miss the point of who the MeToo movement was really for.

Thank you so much for asking me to join you today, and a happy IWD to everyone.

And of course this is the point: this is why we must seize this moment and bring Feminist Leadership to the fore, enrol more men into the charge, then drive change for everyone.

What we do is help organisations think through what they mean in practice about retaining and attracting a more diverse and high quality workforce. We need as much talent and diversity at the Table as we can get, the challenges are not going to get any easier. Why you should implement Feminist Principles in your organisation who would like to lead in a radically different way. Small business in Australia is obviously different to the corporate end of town, with many more women leading small businesses and trying to create their own opportunities, and great organisations helping to make this happen. We then explored different perspectives on power, from personal to projected, looking at examples from our own roles. kazibwe job support versus feminist difficult leadership fully numbers why

Just to be clear, these women may be doing great jobs in their chosen fields, they may be great people: all I am pointing out is that their leadership may not be transformative in any way. As leaders, we have a responsibility to build those cultures and promote care both of ourselves by setting an example and to each other so that we can promote well being. It was also racist: mostly casual, and sometimes overt. Despite being from a low-income environment, I still had an abundance of First World privileges, and I have no doubt that I took that privilege into my early practice of feminism. 0000009321 00000 n But if they do, maybe feminist leadership is something that could really help you embed and live your values.

Check out resources (including recordings) from the free, eight-week webinar series on Feminist Leadership we organised, with change-makers from the sector leading conversations on Accountability, Collective Leadership and more.

We pay our respects to their Elders, past and present, and the Aboriginal Elders of other communities. There are many women lawyers (and men of course) who work tirelessly to reform, to protect, to advocate for women who dont have a voice, and our society is the better for it.

People who might be in the early stages of their career or starting to think about leadership and management roles, or even might even have those roles and want to consider how leadership might look a bit different for them. It's a much more intensive journey that really requires a lot of introspection and analysis of how your organisation works.

feminist c@'B2%T:~?Hi4-=?eE"Gay8sF6y0BuL(,&=nG)n6cNkIH)E Q2Y%I[Yr"UY50#wHau'|3jf30. d'nO}{r~ZLrvI8q*1_H{V3T"n!e@_|h2tLu^hP\Q>+7u,*~*+>JQR) L/s:!h,54C2eFaK)9y/B[z{JuePn| >" endstream endobj 37 0 obj <>stream The people in the room that night at the Golden Globes, the high-powered actors, directors and producers, they are in effect the tip of the iceberg of the industry. For example, how might we be able to recognise how power is projected and distributed in a room? Is this way of working something that you were doing before in your consultancy role before starting We Are Feminists Leaders, or is this something that has grown from your previous experiences? blake Feminist leadership really is all about examining how power operates within an organisation. If you're not able to analyse these distinctions, then again, it's a bit of a sticking plaster but it's not achieving real change. It has been suggested by some that it has taken the election of an obnoxious, underqualified, misogynist as President of the US to serve as the tipping point to wake everyone up to the need to take action and create change. Our podcasts are recorded and produced byLet's Talk Video Production. 0000001332 00000 n And we face huge generational change as Generation Next brings very different values and perspectives to the table. Youve spoken before about the difference between feminine leadership and feminist leadership and the representation of women in leadership. On International Womens Day 2018. Bright is the company behind Asset Bank and Dash. Even if mainstream media has been a bit slow to catch on, the fact is that we are surrounded by incredible examples of Feminist Leadership, none better than IWDA. Deanne spoke to a room of feminist leaders and IWDA networks about feminist leadership and how it can drive change for everyone. 0000003705 00000 n Read her brilliant speech, below. in England No. feminist theories Web design, developed by Suzaku Productions, Bangkok, Web design, developed by Suzaku Productions, Bangkok. you are a x, y, z type of leader. Most importantly, Feminist Leadership doesnt have a fixed definition or step-by-step guide. They dont have the luxury of no cashflow when they are the main source of funding for a family.

I grew up just outside of Brighton, and I left Sussex when I was 18 to go to university but came back about five years ago - it was always a bit of a dream to come back to the city and be by the sea! HtVK#9y >:3iWTD%=_|5r}e-XGB%YeE"ut:6DA!k]#_^]L]f6:v];nt#kB}GnQXe+kJe8L+ye#Bs>t#yi}>&ee#duu 0`dUQ%W 9_p3l,Z;$9'9]%NIv iIBGEE?br|eaRlpPcl{k3 !8>(FEPFTQ6n-2m5IAt2v}*pWeg{iEn/?qZL^TiGk f}J4W}!cT I can think of no better way to celebrate International Womens Day than for us to all walk away from here today with a commitment to take those examples into our own everyday lives, to seize this moment to do whatever we can to push harder for gender equality: I cant wait to see the results., Deanne Weir with IWDA Chair Kirsten Mander and CEO Bettina Baldeschi on IWD 2018. It is broadly defined as: A style of leadership with characteristics commonly associated with social constructs of femininity. feminist leadership principles actionaid ten basics awareness self

Around the world, the screen sector is made up mostly of all of those behind the scenes people who are critical to making any film or TV project actually happen. But: we also know that having that work understood, acknowledged, appreciated, or amplified by mainstream organisations is an ongoing challenge.

They help train low-income and refugee women to unleash their inner entrepreneur, to use their innate talents to setup their own small businesses.

Many of them are also terrified of providing information to the government due to past experience in their home country, so applying for an ABN, a tax file number, filing BAS statements: these are all scary things for many women.

Companies could invest in specific well being activities or just provide spaces to talk about well being and how everyone's doing in a way that isn't just an item at the end of an agenda - there needs be dedicated spaces to talk about it.

Finding policy settings that can support these women to support themselves is critical. They didn't talk about what power is and what opportunities there are to use power really positively. Can you explain how this came about and who the course is aimed at? 0000000016 00000 n 0000096841 00000 n

Self-care has become commercialised and commodified, which inevitably lends itself to a very individualistic view towards it - ie. It was whilst working for Oxfam that she became a helpline volunteer for Oxfordshire Sexual Abuse and Rape Crisis Centre, which led to her managing the centre. During the workshop we explored this paradigm, using the lens of power and authority in our professional roles, which made for some illuminating insights.

What is Feminist Leadership, you ask? We found that many of us women feel most comfortable sitting with and using our personal power, in the form of our educational achievements, skills, capabilities, and accumulated experiences and such. Bright Interactive Limited, Reg. feminist leadership isbn 0000007756 00000 n Following a rich discussion, we considered how a function of feminist leadership is to make power dynamics more transparent. Often, when I talk about feminist leadership people will respond to me and say, 'Yeah, great, we really want to get more women into leadership roles', which is completely understandable because feminism is often associated with women's rights and the representation of women in public spaces. And that's how this programme came about. Perhaps it's implementing an organisation policy of 80% working hours where you don't need to explain yourself - everyone is expected to work 80% of their waking hours and if you work more brilliant, if you don't, that's fine too.

What does accountability genuinely look like in your organisation, both for individuals and for groups of people in the organisation? But we dont have the time to wait for conservative men or women to get comfortable. We say that you cant be what you cant see, and we need to see and hear from female characters in all of their complexity. Its so brilliant to have a fellow Brightonian join us on the podcast. Those women who came before us ensured that we have the right to vote, the right to education, the right to control our reproductive destiny, and without those achievements, we would not even be at the table.

True and lasting transformation is not a matter of checking boxes, but rather the sum of small changes we live and breathe in our everyday life. Please click below to choose which to sign up to.

I'd advise looking at your existing organisational values (if you have them) and think about whether they they do align with feminist values. This was important for me, because it helped me to understand the notion of intersectionality, a word that is being bandied around a lot.

And when we talk of small business we can also talk about my other passion, the screen sector, which is actually made up of mostly small businesses. I'm a bit of a sea swimmer so I've been doing that through the winter to keep my spirits up. It was our view that to have a truly robust justice system, one that understood the whole community, we needed much better representation of women across the legal profession. So for us, that's about the positive and inclusive use of power.

Read her brilliant speech, below. 0000011660 00000 n Growing up in a country town in the 70s, there were plenty of women leaders, but feminist leaders were few and far between. The thing about feminist leadership that I think is quite different from other forms of leadership is that it is not a tick box exercise that you can run through, say you've achieved x, y, and z and ta-da! However, when thinking about Feminist Leadership today, we need to learn from our history, and ensure that our approach to change does take an intersectional approach, that we look at the impacts of race, ethnicity, culture and religion as we think about gender inequality. A society that prevents half of its population from realising their economic, cultural, physical or spiritual potential cannot be an enriched society. It's basically women as leaders. TQK{7A4zD=z"UQ[e_izPTg(CkQNwpA+7}# 4l@)t(RBX}Vyzgr+H'e6x#kXDz^0L)_~`d>V5h0` 9 endstream endobj 38 0 obj <>stream In the long run it is the complex interplay of different capacities, feminine and masculine, that protects the humanity of human beings.~ Margaret Mead, Join us as a Women of World as we embark on a 9-month program beginning June, 2022Embode Ltd. All rights reserved. H[6

We are all about helping to make your workday more inspiring and productive, so take the tour and discover our range of resources. To achieve this we talk a lot about the need for reflection, continuous learning and being really being mindful of the power that we hold as individuals. Reg Office: 9th Floor, Tower Point, 44 North Road, Brighton, East Sussex, BN1 1YR, UK, Intelligent Digital Asset Management Software, Streamlined, lightning fast DAM solution for smaller teams. I have been thinking about this a lot in recent months. 3865036. schoolhouse leadership whsmith

In celebration of International Womens Day, I was recently invited by UN Women to lead a UN workshop on the topic of Feminist Leadership. Can you explain a little more around these topics? They are not the same thing, but they are definitely not mutually exclusive. Secondly, it would be all women who've worked in the UK women sector. Is it any wonder we have multilayered unconscious bias when we only tell half of our stories.

Since then she has been a passionate supporter of women's sector organisations, working as an independent consultant as well as co-founding WAFL in 2020. or check out more about We Are Feminist Leaders and their upcoming programmes on their. 0000002588 00000 n Below are some resources to get you started. But I think it can also send a really clear message to staff that they are trusted and it's acknowledged that they're working under difficult circumstances. anu

Sitemap 27

why is feminist leadership importantnavy blue pants women