Women's Leadership
Say you’ve just scored your dream job. And that dream job involves representing your town, county, state, or even country, dedicating your time and energy to making a difference in people’s lives. You’re feeling energized, hopeful, idealistic even. And then, on day one, you face a harsh reality: The majority of governments in this country weren’t set up with women in mind. You knew your job would be tough, but maybe you didn’t realize how tough.
It’s a previously underreported scenario we heard again and again while talking to elected women for How to Succeed in Office. They face far more roadblocks than their male counterparts on all fronts—financial, logistical, physical, mental, emotional, we could go on—with women of color and working parents often being even more affected.
Below are ideas and tangible solutions for the biggest and most common challenges women in office face. We also enlisted veteran politicians to help out a few newcomers with their very specific quandaries. Because we know it takes a village, and we’re pretty sure it’s women who are going to get each other out of this mess.
Read here the full article published by Cosmopolitan on 13 May 2024.
Image by Cosmopolitan
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Can a democracy where women have never been equal ever really thrive? How are attacks on democracy tied to gender equity? What can we learn from past fights to protect and expand women’s rights in order to chart a path forward?
A two-part virtual discussion hosted by Ms. magazine in partnership with NYU Law’s Birnbaum Women’s Leadership Center and the 92Y explored these questions, plus how women’s rights are inextricably tied to the integrity and durability of democratic institutions.
The conversation was moderated by Jennifer Weiss-Wolf, executive director of the Birnbaum Women’s Leadership Center at NYU Law and executive director of partnerships and strategy at Ms. magazine, with panelists:
1. Alexis McGill-Johnson: president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Action Fund
2. Melissa Murray: Frederick I. and Grace Stokes professor of law and faculty director of the Birnbaum Women’s Leadership Center at NYU Law
3. Pamela Shifman: president of the Democracy Alliance
Watch here the full recording published by Ms. Magazine on 02 May 2024.
Image by Ms. Magazine
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The struggle of Black women to be recognized, respected, and welcomed as leaders is an international one. Generally, Black women have been absent and invisible from leadership positions in many countries—including the author’s home country of Nigeria, where a historical dearth of women in political or official positions remains very much the case today, despite purported efforts by the Nigerian government to increase women’s participation in politics.
According to Nigeria’s National Bureau of Statistics, the national average of women’s political participation in Nigeria has remained at 6.7 percent in elective and appointive positions—far below the global average of 22.5 percent. Many of the hurdles Black women face in Nigeria resemble those faced by Black women in the United States, including discrimination, stereotyping, and a lack of support.
But Nigerian women aspiring to leadership face other hurdles more specific to Nigerian culture. Nigeria remains a patriarchal society in which men are considered the “natural” decision-makers in every sector. Women are generally looked upon as mere housewives and homemakers, unfit to lead in any place where men dominate. In Igboland, it is considered an abomination for a woman to even look upon kola nut—a crucial part of many ceremonies, gatherings, and welcomings—or bless it in any event. Instead, it is the duty of the men to pass the kola nuts and bless them.
Women who do attain leadership positions are often antagonized by men, who do not want to take instructions from a woman. It is easy to villainize a Black woman on the basis of her gender, especially if she is challenging the status quo in her career path.
Read here the full article published by the Nonprofit Quarterly on 30 April 2024.
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Pursuing gender equality remains a significant challenge in the 21st century. Despite notable advancements in fields such as education, healthcare, and economic engagement, there remains a persistent disparity in the representation of women in leadership positions across various industries. This disparity not only hinders the optimal utilisation of the labour force but also restricts societal progress. Existing evaluation criteria often prove inadequate as they fail to account for the intricacies of women's leadership trajectories, particularly in the Global South nations. To bridge this divide, a comprehensive quantitative approach that delves into the nuances of female leadership and empowerment is imperative.
Reimagining gender indices
Several well-established indices have been crucial in assessing advancements in gender equality. The Global Gender Gap Index by the World Economic Forum and the Gender Inequality Index by the UNDP offer essential insights into various areas, including economic participation and political representation. Initiatives like the Women's Empowerment Principles by UN Women and the Women, Peace, and Security Index by Georgetown Institute shed light on specific facets of women's rights and inclusion. However, these measures often prioritise a limited number of indicators, primarily concentrating on outcome-driven data.
Read here the full article published by the Observer Research Foundation on 30 April 2024.
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Balancing family obligations and public service is a persistent challenge for working mothers in America’s political system, family advocates told the 2024 National Press Foundation Women in Politics Fellowship. They say the system has largely failed to account for childcare and other related responsibilities.
Liuba Grechen Shirley, founder of the Vote Mama Foundation, and Virginia state Sen. Jennifer Carroll Foy said additional support is needed, especially for working mothers. The support is required to gain equal access to elective office and other forms of public service.
“So, we are trying to change the structural barriers, trying to change the way that people run, trying to change the way that people serve,” said Grechen Shirley. Her group has been a leading advocate for mothers’ full participation in the nation’s political system. “There is now a very high attrition rate for moms serving in state legislatures… That needs to change.”
Read here the full article published by the National Press Foundation on 29 April 2024.
Image by National Press Foundation
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In a webinar hosted by Grassroots for Europe, leading female activists and politicians discussed the critical role of women in defending democracy against Europe’s rising tide of autocracy, setting the stage for a transformative 2024 election season.
Grassroots for Europe, founded in 2018, promotes understanding and engagement with European issues at the local level. This webinar marks the 45th in its series of round table events, bringing together organisations and experts.
A timely and crucial dialogue
In an era where political landscapes are rapidly shifting, with various elections coming up around the world, the ‘Grassroots for Europe Round Table Webinar: Women’s Role in Democracy and Peace’ brought together a panel to tackle some of the issues facing Europe today. Held online via Zoom on 16 April, this pivotal discussion drew participants from across the continent.
Colin Gordon, vice chair of Grassroots for Europe, said: “This is the first time we’ve had an event specifically about women’s voice, agency and rights in campaigning and in European political activity”, though, in fact, as he also mentioned, “the majority of the founders of the initial round table were women activists from the grassroots”.
Read here the full article published by Yorkshire Bylines on 28 April 2024.
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At a time of pandemics, international economic downturns, and increasing environmental threats due to climate change, countries around the world are facing numerous crises. What impact might we expect these crises to have on the already common perception that executive leadership is a masculine domain? For years, women executives’ ability to lead has been questioned (Jalalzai 2013). However, the outbreak of COVID-19 brought headlines like CNN’s “Women Leaders Are Doing a Disproportionately Great Job at Handling the Pandemic” (Fincher 2020). Do crises offer women presidents and prime ministers opportunities to be perceived as competent leaders? Or do they prime masculinized leadership expectations and reinforce common conceptions that women are unfit to lead? We maintain that people’s perceptions of crisis leadership will depend on whether the crisis creates role (in)congruity between traditional gender norms and the leadership expectations generated by the particular crisis.
Click here to read the article by Cambridge University Press the 12 January 2023.
Women’s political rights and their exercise of political citizenship globally have often expanded more rapidly in times of conflict, crisis, and revolution. The decline of empires after World Wars I and II and the creation of new nations served as a catalyst for the expansion of women’s suffrage. Civil wars and revolutions have had similar outcomes in expanding women’s political citizenship. This essay brings together several disparate literatures on World War I, World War II, wars of independence, revolution, and post-1990 civil wars and expands their scope to show how women’s political rights and citizenship in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries have often been linked to conflict. In doing so, I highlight a notable pathway by which rights expansions occurred: conflict led to changes in the political elite and ruling class, resulting in the necessity to rewrite constitutions and other rules of the polity. During these critical junctures, women’s rights activists gained opportunities to advance their demands. The context of changing international gender norms also influenced these moments. I consider two key moments in the worldwide expansion of political citizenship: the struggle for women’s suffrage and the struggle to expand women’s representation in local and national representative bodies.
Click here to read the article by Cambridge University Press on 12 January 2023.
UN Women and ESCWA conducted in-depth interviews with seven Lebanese women in politics who were all ‘first’s’ in different ways. They include the first female Minister of Interior in Lebanon and the Arab world, the first female Minister to have a child, the first female independent Member of Parliament, the first female Secretary-General of a political party represented in Parliament and the first female Head of party.
This report analyses the set of interviews and explores the stories of each - the barriers they faced to political participation and the opportunities they leveraged.
The report aims to offer policy makers and practitioners a better understanding of the challenges and opportunities that exist when women seek political office in Lebanon.
Click here to access the report.
How to Include the Missing Perspectives of Women of All Colors in News Leadership and Coverage — a new report from Luba Kassova.
From Outrage to Opportunity: How to Include the Missing Perspectives of Women of All Colors in News Leadership and Coverage is a solutions-focused sequel to the award-winning independent reports, The Missing Perspectives of Women in News/COVID-19 News, authored by Luba Kassova and commissioned by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. It examines the harsh realities facing women of all colors in news leadership and coverage in India, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, the UK, and the USA.
In both editorial leadership roles and in news coverage, women continue to be significantly under-represented in an industry persistently dominated by men. While women in news have it hard, women of color have it even harder. In countries with multi-racial populations, women of color experience greater exclusion in the news industry.
Click here to access the report.
With the support of UNESCO, the International Center for Journalists (ICFJ) has published a groundbreaking, book-length global study on online violence against women journalists, documenting alarming trends and offering solutions to this pernicious problem.
The Chilling: A global study of online violence against women journalists is the most geographically, linguistically and ethnically diverse research ever published on the theme. Publication of the 300-page book, concludes a three-year research project originally commissioned by UNESCO in 2019.
Click here to access the report.
Violence against women in all its forms is perceived by the OSCE as one of the most pervasive impediments to women’s full, equal and effective participation in political and public life and as a threat to human security. Yet, it is prevalent across the OSCE region, and it is especially, but not exclusively, affecting young, disabled, ethnic minority women. Women are targeted with violence not only for their political views but also to prevent current and aspiring women politicians from engaging in politics and decision-making altogether. Violence is not a price women should have to pay in order to enjoy their political and civil rights. In addition to individual suffering and violation of women’s rights, this violence weakens democratic governance, political pluralism and the inclusivity of public institutions. This toolkit provides recommendations for legislators, governments, parliaments and political parties as well as guidance for civil society and women politicians affected by violence. It consolidates existing definitions and compiles examples of promising practices on preventing violence against women in politics from a variety of States. The toolkit is based upon international standards and OSCE commitments.
Click here to access the report.