Episode 21: Are Feminist Leadership Transitions Feminist?
We just completed the seminal month for women’s rights globally – worldwide celebration of International Women’s Day on March 8th, innumerable events worldwide for Women’s History month in the United States, and the 66th UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) recently concluded. Women’s rights and feminist organizations and movements are the drivers of change for gender equality yet, the question of how feminist organizations grow and thrive, the tensions they experience between principles and how those get practiced, and around how power is exercised are really topics at events like the CSW. In our last episode, we interviewed three founder leaders of feminist organizations and for this episode, we talked with a group of fierce feminist leaders who invested their hearts and souls in four very different organizational contexts over the past 30 years.
Episode 20: Feminist Leadership Transitions
In our last episode we talked about the challenges of dismantling patriarchy and promised that our next episode would start to unpack different strategies to topple patriarchy. We have chosen to focus first on how leadership transitions happen and what happens to the leaders who choose to leave. There is a generational shift in leadership of feminist organizations around the world and we can see that these shifts happen differently in different contexts. They represent a way in which we both wrestle with and challenge patriarchy.
Feminists Leading Change: Women in Leadership Roles
Despite some progress in the workplace in the last few years, gender stereotypes are still entrenched in our societies and workplaces. Gender norms, stereotypes and socio-cultural practises can still be very restrictive for women’s participation in the workplace. Currently, women make up less than 10% of executive directorships in FTSE100 companies. Research shows that for women to aspire to rise to leadership positions, role models are vital.
Episode 19: Caring in a Post Covid World
In a passionate and wide-ranging conversation, Kumi Naidoo and Aruna Rao explore hope, fear, Black Lives Matter, feminist principles, intersectionality and structural change. They ask whether the institutions that were set up to protect us, like the police, and to enable social change, such as social services, the UN, and international development organizations, have failed us and whether we should keep trying to change them from the inside or tear them down and start again.
Episode 18: Dismantling Patriarchy – Close Encounters and Imperfect Strategies
Look around you and you’ll find many conversations about reimagining and transforming how we live and work – from how we enable the plant to thrive, to new ways of envisioning economics. And in all kinds of organizations, we are seeing real challenges to what was previously unchecked – abusive power dynamics, toxic work environments, sexual harassment, racism, and discrimination against all kinds of people who don’t fit what was considered ‘the norm’. In this episode – the first in a series of three – Srilatha Batliwala, David Kelleher, Lisa Veneklasen, Joanne Sandler and Aruna Rao reflect on the their close encounters with patriarchy in organizations and the dynamics they tried to ignite to challenge them which they outlined in their article on Medium.
Episode 17: Intergenerational Conversations on Organizing for Gender Equality
On the eve of the Generation Equality Forum (GEF) in Paris, Aruna Rao and Joanne Sandler – veterans of the 1995 Beijing conference – have an intergenerational talk with three young activists: Priya Kvam and Amani Jui from Breakthrough US and Natalia Escruceria Price, an independent consultant formerly with JASS. Our exchange with these young activists highlights …
Episode 16: Are Our Strategies Fit for Purpose?
Gender mainstreaming and the two-track approach to achieve gender equality were two strategies for strengthening organizations’ action on gender equality that grew out of the 1995 Beijing Conference on Women. Twenty-six years later, the world looks very different with multiple crises of inequality, violence against women and LGBTIQ people, climate extinction and less faith in democracy and the old social contract. Have our strategies delivered on their promise?
Feminists Leading Change: Renata Avila
Meet Renata Avila, a feminist reimagining Artificial Intelligence to include us all. Expert in digital rights, she studies the politics of data, the evolution of transparency, and their implications on trade, democracy and society, alerting about a phenomenon she describes as digital colonialism. She is a Guatemalan, International Human Rights Lawyer and author. She is currently an HAI Race & Tech Fellow at Stanford University. With more than fifteen years of experience working in cutting edge issues related to technology and society. She co-founded and leads the
Feminists Leading Change: Nitika Pant
Meet Nitika Pant. A woman challenging gender norms and leading those in her community with her, in her revolution. Nitika Pant is a co-founder of SAKAR, India, which was established in 2005. Nitika and her organisation promote gender equality and minority rights. She is especially concerned about the health and education of adolescent girls in Bareilly, India, where she lives.
Feminists Leading Change: Kelsie Joseph
Meet Kelsie Joseph, a young feminist activist leading the change in addressing gender-based violence (GBV) in Trinidad and Tobago. GBV is at its heights in Trinidad and Tobago and young women are demanding their government to prioritize their safety. Kelsie is on the front lines in protests and demanding action. Kelsie is part of the leadership team of the global youth movement: Chalk Back. She is the co-founder of catcallsofUWI (University of West Indies).