A BIG thank you to Natalie for joining us on the podcast and uncovering the benefits of introducing feminist leadership principles in the workplace. Following the release of the movie Wonder Woman, an amazing thing happened: both little girls and little boys were dressing up in costumes of their favourite new superhero: Wonder Woman!!
For example, are minoritized women such as black or disabled women able to use power In the same way as a white woman? 
Firstly, it's important to develop a meaningful culture. While this activity, and the global focus on it, is very welcome, if you listen to some commentators, it is almost as if Feminist Leadership and womens voices are a relatively new thing. 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. 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. TQK{7A4zD=z"UQ[e_izPTg(CkQNwpA+7}#
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The screen sector is a particularly important one in this discussion, because the cultural product produced by the sector is a critical influencer in how we see gender roles in our society. nh; )7+ We have two mailing lists,one in English and one in German. But our new project and course is really sort of a combination of of that work and some frustrations which led to this new idea being born. 0000008801 00000 n
But first, lets clarify what I think of as Feminist Leadership, because I think there is indeed a difference between Feminist Leadership, and leadership by women. 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. What we hope to do with the course is provide an opportunity to reflect on on what that leadership culture is in your organisation and whether or not you might want to do things a little bit differently later. 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. 0000009321 00000 n
I am a white person: my upbringing was small town and monocultural. Self-care has become commercialised and commodified, which inevitably lends itself to a very individualistic view towards it - ie. 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 most important of all, how do we utilise projected power to serve the purpose of our work, missions and organisations? 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! It's not just a nice to have, which I think is is often seen as so we talk about self care, as well as cultures of care. Natalie started her career in campaigning for NUS and Oxfam.
Feminist Leadership is about speaking up and continually advocating for change. I.e. We do recognise it's not for everyone, but I think for any business that wants to make a positive impact in the world it's a no brainer. I'm a bit of a sea swimmer so I've been doing that through the winter to keep my spirits up. 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. 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. Youve recently launched a (now sold out!) If women who were trained to understand rights, to advocate for others, if they were still being discriminated against within their own profession, then what hope was there for anyone else? b (13o1Z5!5gH+ib+A--r`+)-/)" Jv&Y"?W "%Xl%1Q?!rAES? We believe that in addition to ensuring equity in leadership opportunities, social impact organisations can benefit tremendously improving their organisational culture as well as the quality of their external programmes by exploring what Feminist Leadership can mean for them in practice. 0000002553 00000 n And how do we know when it is projected onto us in our roles? Do they have capacity to make decisions and to use power equally? And we face huge generational change as Generation Next brings very different values and perspectives to the table. So it's not just about thinking how do people or staff who are disabled need to be supported? 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. In reaction, we have come to see the dynamic of how power is projected as negative and something we should do without. 0000007756 00000 n Feminist Leadership is a concept developed and practised mainly by womens movements in the Global South. 0000012673 00000 n 0000024083 00000 n Instead, they will continue to argue for merit-based approaches, without necessarily realising the possibility that their definition of merit is more of a subjective test that prioritises anyone who looks like them. Ez@F&:V^s,3c(-_`! Often what we're really talking about when we speak about feminist leadership is that that while it is crucially important to get women into boardrooms and management positions to progress gender equality, feminist leadership as a concept is about a lot more than just recruiting more women into leadership positions. 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? Why is talking about feminism and feminist leadership principles important to you? As a business person, it amazes me that anyone wouldnt want to access 100% of the available talent pool to give themselves the widest possible choices, but I also understand that fear of change, and I know that those with privilege wont give it up easily.
Think about what that does to the perception of a young child.women can be my heroes. 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. This formed a huge part of my own development and understanding of what feminism meant to me, and what it could mean more broadly. 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. }0&zWc, 07H20Ki&YH12`` @P@,_` + endstream endobj 31 0 obj <>>> endobj 32 0 obj >/PageWidthList<0 595.276>>>>>>/Resources<>/ExtGState<>/Font<>/ProcSet[/PDF/Text/ImageC/ImageI]/Properties<>/XObject<>>>/Rotate 0/Tabs/W/Thumb 25 0 R/TrimBox[0.0 0.0 595.276 841.89]/Type/Page>> endobj 33 0 obj <> endobj 34 0 obj [/Indexed 35 0 R 1 54 0 R] endobj 35 0 obj [/ICCBased 53 0 R] endobj 36 0 obj <>stream I've mentioned concepts like power sharing, but accountability is also important. 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. Secondly, it would be all women who've worked in the UK women sector. As Ginger Rogers said, she did everything that Fred Astaire did but she did it backwards and wearing high heels: but who is remembered as the genius of song and dance?? Your new initiative is named We are Feminist Leaders. I spend a lot of my time now working in the screen sector and of course the initial momentum for the MeToo and TimesUp campaigns came out of the US screen sector, and was quickly picked up on by a lot of our sisters here in Australia and around the world.
What is the worst that could happen? How you look after your staff and how staff are encouraged to look after each other are really central principles. 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. 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. 0000010672 00000 n One is an Indian woman called Srilatha Batliwala. Keep your digital content organised and ready to share with our range of DAM solutions to suit you. 30 31 Some of us in organisations have developed value statements - they're all up on the wall or on the website, but not often referred to. 0000000916 00000 n Unconscious bias is holding us all back, by preventing women from accessing opportunities, and by putting unrealistic and harmful expectations on men. What we talk about is doing things like assessing what happens once women are at the table. What is Feminist Leadership, you ask? We talk of getting policy settings right for innovation and entrepreneurship, but often we are doing so through a male or unreconstructed gaze, with our focus on which company is going to be the next technology unicorn, ignoring that some of the biggest innovation is going on at the grassroots level.
5 Ways to Meaningfully Engage in National Reconciliation Week this Year, WATCH: The Trouble with Capitalism A Case for Anti-Capitalist Feminism. Why you should implement Feminist Principles in your organisation who would like to lead in a radically different way. 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. 0000010207 00000 n 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. And when we look at the basic data, we know that we can be a better society. We then explored different perspectives on power, from personal to projected, looking at examples from our own roles. Most importantly, Feminist Leadership doesnt have a fixed definition or step-by-step guide. Deanne spoke to a room of IWDAs networks about feminist leadership and how it can drive change for everyone. Natalie and Leila doing their thing on Zoom! As an example, Global Sisters is a fabulous organisation that our Foundation has been supporting for the last couple of years. In 1996, as a fresh-faced young lawyer, I was the founding convenor of the Victoria Women Lawyers Association. 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. Deanne Weir is a long term friend and supporter of IWDA.
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 &Be9_jM $IWEk{2 T})a# Many of these women are on benefits, and while they are keen to take control of their own destiny, stand on their own two feet and run their own business, they are also terrified of losing benefits if the business revenue doesnt arrive. 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. Those are things that can really transform the way that you look at your workforce and include the people in it. So by that I mean the refuges, the domestic abuse organisations which have been running for five decades and the women who have set up charities in the 70s from their back rooms. Please click below to choose which to sign up to. 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. I started to see a lot less Feminist Leadership when I became much more immersed in the media and business sectors. Can you explain how this came about and who the course is aimed at? This is Feminist Leadership at its best, working with these women to find solutions that work for them and their families. What would a virtual home for Feminist Leaders around the world look like? In celebration of International Womens Day, I was recently invited by UN Women to lead a UN workshop on the topic of Feminist Leadership. So we decided to do it ourselves. APcgCuRZ 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. It was also racist: mostly casual, and sometimes overt. hb``b``f`a` @16 Xp*>BbAC>4e`KKKh xt0h0bE2 3p#H4,:pi_. We are facing the onslaught of the fourth industrial revolution,with disruptive technologies that will change our society at every single level. 0000002510 00000 n Feminist Leadership at its most basic is a commitment to creating alternatives to traditional, hierarchical leadership and organisational cultures.
This was important for me, because it helped me to understand the notion of intersectionality, a word that is being bandied around a lot. trailer <<2573B646FFBE4B02B8C00F88B313AE45>]/Prev 208770>> startxref 0 %%EOF 60 0 obj <>stream oJo4 V+{ YSmiHf6H}_+x;@s1}j+K>Q58ZwBNnFAlsXwwBC $w!}Jsd.y~\ Y endstream endobj 40 0 obj <>stream I was lucky enough to meet inspiring Feminist Leaders in my early 20s. 0000096841 00000 n jZBz] Youve spoken before about the difference between feminine leadership and feminist leadership and the representation of women in leadership. They showed me how important it was to not be a bystander, to call out inequalities that exist, to identify lack of opportunities, to do what I could to help create paths to equality, to empower women to help their own communities and find their own voices. Read her brilliant speech, below. 0000009784 00000 n A BIG thank you to Natalie for joining us on the podcast and uncovering the benefits of introducing feminist leadership principles in the workplace. Copyright 2021 Bright. Do they have an equal voice? You can revoke your consent any time using the Revoke consent button. The second wave feminists voiced their opinions and fought for our right to have choice, to live our lives as we see fit, and I am grateful for that privilege. We talk about our target audience as emerging leaders. c@'B2%T:~?Hi4-=?eE"Gay8sF6y0BuL(,&=nG)n6cNkIH)E Q2Y%I[Yr"UY50#wHau'|3jf30. Thank you so much for asking me to join you today, and a happy IWD to everyone. 30 0 obj <> endobj xref HtVK:)|D9 eydQrA>dXjJFc]7q" t5._^+6N0I0fO|c)7v6gX-RxO8rg8^nMqf~^qDj/jxf&5HG^9"kE%Kx[c~N+jG\No6AkAsUmQQMg`zd/!olUcr@5q43d=dC?s[BPw=bR+y57\tG? 84KB2 &U$m'P}3tE@ =kpvV3GFq7oXIqun:B^a5-bBKAJezCCqJw"]-^xf!cuc$X
Finally, wed love to know which leaders inspire you and why! So we're addressing those power dynamics, talking about things like intersectionality - a concept which helps define how people who might experience multiple forms of oppression can be supported. Shes also one of the most influential women in media in Australia, and a globally recognised leader, strategist and communicator. But: we also know that having that work understood, acknowledged, appreciated, or amplified by mainstream organisations is an ongoing challenge. 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'd advise looking at your existing organisational values (if you have them) and think about whether they they do align with feminist values. First things first, how did you come to find yourself in our wonderful city, and how are you spending your days in this strange lockdown period? Lockdown is a very strange time and alongside the rest of the UK, I'm a bit bored! On International Womens Day 2018. We believe that self care and cultures of care is really vital to feminist leadership. But we dont have the time to wait for conservative men or women to get comfortable. Emma Pryke, Mar 4, 2021.
It responds to the long-standing privileging of more masculine ways of leading that have often led to less than desirable outcomes. 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. Feminist leadership is being called out more and more to manage and deal with increasing global challenges in the socio-political realms. Seriously? 0000011660 00000 n Written By We looked at them from both feminine and masculine angles touching upon those parts that made us feel the most uncomfortable. It is broadly defined as: A style of leadership with characteristics commonly associated with social constructs of femininity. Finally, for those organisations that are trying to make a social and positive change in the world, I think feminist leadership practice can help you really live and breathe the change you're trying to make. Web design, developed by Suzaku Productions, Bangkok, Web design, developed by Suzaku Productions, Bangkok. This paper, developed by the FAIR SHARE Action Circle, presents questions questions on the themes ofPurpose, People, Power and Process for individual and collective self-reflection, learning and persistence in the journey to shift the leadership paradigm in the sector. 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. 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. They help train low-income and refugee women to unleash their inner entrepreneur, to use their innate talents to setup their own small businesses. These are women for whom regular paid employment may not be suitable due to their personal circumstances, whether as refugees, or due to health issues or other constraints. There are lots of things that are unique to women that bring value into leadership roles. We had women farmers, the CWA, women in leadership positions in local business or local government, but most of them lacked what I think of as the key requirement of a feminist leader. Using the Grubb Schools definitions we distinguished Authority (relating to role, system and task) from Power (relating to the person). Organisations like IWDA, led by women, working with women, have been changing the world we live in every single day for many, many years. We do separately want to really recognise and acknowledge the value and the attributes that women bring into leadership. By doing that you are building an organisation that's really capable of changing the world. Welcome, Natalie! 0000006726 00000 n --l>TQwlR"{V\>Xh"z=N:|n9Ca$j&1 The notion that we have to spend money on green juice and yoga to look after ourselves! That's what prompted the development of We Are Feminist Leaders because we were really disappointed that the leadership models that we were being taught didn't have any sort of power analysis. Through WEL, I was introduced to IWDA, and this was a really important development for me. One of the principles you cover in your course is how to build cultures of care, starting from the principle of self-care for leaders. We shouldnt have to work harder than men just to prove ourselves, there shouldnt be unconscious bias suggesting a man will do a better job simply because of his gender, but it is still there and if we deny it, we are just kidding ourselves. It's basically women as leaders. I have been thinking about this a lot in recent months. HK#7>E]!>3s!'AbSb~Q9f=?zK}*S ~3VLe H[6 0000002588 00000 n I think other leaders have been much more compassionate and careful about the way they've communicated about that. How would you define the word 'feminist'? Why is this? For example, how might we be able to recognise how power is projected and distributed in a room? %PDF-1.7 % 83P`H29C#JPD(VKTI So actually, getting women into leadership roles doesn't always achieve what we hope it will do because the context around them hasn't shifted. 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. 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. Feminist leadership really is all about examining how power operates within an organisation. We pay our respects to their Elders, past and present, and the Aboriginal Elders of other communities. 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. Growing up in a country town in the 70s, there were plenty of women leaders, but feminist leaders were few and far between. In what we might call the big business sector, there doesnt seem a lot of openness to challenging the status quo, of moving away from management and leadership through a male gaze. It does matter who commissions, writes, directs, produces and sells our screen products. She is a huge thinker on feminist leadership and academic, if you're interested in getting into the detail of feminist leadership I do really encourage you to look her up. 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. I don't agree with everything she says, by any means but Nicola Sturgeon I think has shown some real feminist leadership through the compassionate way that she's communicated to the Scottish people and the world about COVID - a really stark contrast in my opinion to how our leaders in Westminster have spoken about it. Self care is often seen as something that we can buy. But its meaningless if a company doesnt understand what self care is and supports staff to engage in it, as it will always be seen as a nice to have rather than a critical part of the business. 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. Following a rich discussion, we considered how a function of feminist leadership is to make power dynamics more transparent. 0000021435 00000 n
0000105024 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. If they don't, perhaps it's not a good fit for you. What a fascinating point in history for us to be joining together to celebrate Feminist Leadership and to ask ourselves just what is next: where is this all going? And womens AFL: when I watch a game on TV, it brings tears to my eyes to see young boys wanting autographs from female players: it is just not that hard to make that change happen! What does accountability genuinely look like in your organisation, both for individuals and for groups of people in the organisation? 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. 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. 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.
Blog: Lets be bold on Feminist Leadership. This is a question we want to explore with you, in a participatory process designed by One Future Collective with many ways to share your thoughts, questions and ideas. How can people develop this in their company? 0000010290 00000 n Interested in finding out a bit more about us and what its like to be part of Bright? And by definition, cashflow from small businesses can be uncertain and lumpy. Bright is the company behind Asset Bank and Dash. 0000004712 00000 n We are all about helping to make your workday more inspiring and productive, so take the tour and discover our range of resources. All Rights Reserved. And they could be huge. Can you explain a little more around these topics? During the workshop we explored this paradigm, using the lens of power and authority in our professional roles, which made for some illuminating insights. So in addition to monitoring the proportion of women leaders in social impact leadership, we advocate for Feminist Leadership. You can connect with Natalie on LinkedIn or check out more about We Are Feminist Leaders and their upcoming programmes on their brand new website and on Twitter. Working in a feminist way and using feminist principles in my career has been part of my work for a long time, both within the organisations that I've been part of and since I've worked independently as a consultant. They didn't talk about what power is and what opportunities there are to use power really positively.