Developing Voice, Moving to Action: Applying a Feminist Lens to Collegiate Leadership Education

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Short Description

The amplification of women’s voices is not enough in these turbulent times. Feminism is needed to convert ideas into practical application. Using a case for women’s leadership development constructed through this lens, we will discuss the possibilities and challenges of such a theoretical application.

Detailed Abstract

While recent research on the conceptualization and practice of leadership has begun to include attention to women (Kezar, Carducci, & Contreras-McGavin, 2006), education regarding leadership development for women tends to adopt limited frameworks for their design. Some, for example, adopt an “add women and stir” approach just including women in traditional approaches (Martin & Meyerson, 1998, p. 312). Other approaches identify women as a problem to be fixed, and advance that women must be taught masculine leadership skills to succeed in the gendered organization (Ely & Meyerson, 2000). Through this approach, women need “simply to learn the rules of the game” and play accordingly to get ahead (Ely, Ibarra, & Kolb, 2011, p. 486). What is lacking in women’s leadership development is “a coherent, theoretically-based, and actionable framework for designing and delivering leadership programs for women” (Ely et al., 2011, p. 475). We posit that applying a feminist lens to collegiate women’s leadership education may provide such an opportunity.

While women’s leadership development programs have grown in recent years (Ely et al., 2011), little attention has been given to female college student leadership development. Studies focused on women’s leadership development have focused largely on women in professional settings (Hopkins, O’Neil, Passarelli, & Bilimoria, 2008; Roy, Weibust, & Miller, 2009; Valian, 1998; Vinnicombe & Singh, 2002). Haber (2011) and Haber-Curran (2013) have, however, expanded our understanding of the leadership experiences of female college students. Themes identified included: leadership approaches (relationship versus task-oriented behavior, organization and environmental context, and messages from the past), and perceptions about gender (Haber, 2011). Haber-Curran (2013) found that female students identified successes as a leader related to feelings of accomplishment in enhancing the organization and helping develop group members as successes. Haber-Curran also found that female students identified balancing relationship and task behaviors and balancing the role of leader and friend as challenges they faced as leaders. These results are similar to research about women in the workforce (Ginsberg & Stitzel, 1994), suggesting that educational institutions need to help better prepare female students for their experiences after college. The findings of these studies (Haber, 2011; Haber-Curran, 2013) reflect the need to address perceptions of leadership, challenges female leaders face, and development of self-efficacy in female students and provide useful insight for developing leadership education initiatives specifically for female college student leaders.

This review of existing scholarship affords an opportunity to view leadership education through a different lens, specifically a feminist leadership approach. Before understanding how a feminist approach to leadership development could be beneficial, we first have to understand what it is. Feminist leadership focuses on authenticity, connection, empowering others, and striving for social justice and equity (Caldwell-Colbert & Albino, 2007; Chin, 2004; Porter & Daniels, 2007). One distinction between feminist leadership and more traditional views of leadership is a shift in descriptors. Feminist leaders view leaders not as solo architects, but as coordinators, facilitators, and collaborators (Batliwala, 2011; Chin, 2004; hooks, 1994). Feminist leadership is also about fairness, justice, and equity (Barton, 2006). A feminist perspective on leadership allows us “to hear women’s voices that long have been held in silence” (Thurber & Zimmerman, 2002, p. 12). Thurber and Zimmerman identify that the use of voice can be “personal” (feeling empowered and validated through self-reflection); “collaborative” (speaking and sharing with others); and “public” (becoming “agents for change rather than targets of change”) (pp. 14-15). This use of voice is tied to the emancipatory emphasis in feminist leadership: a commitment to social justice, equity, and change for the betterment of all (Batliwala, 2011).

To guide the discussion of applying a theoretical feminist lens to collegiate women’s leadership education, the presenters will:
• Offer a critique of existing programs
• Provide the basic tenets of feminism and feminist leadership
• Share examples of the successes, roadblocks, and learning from one case of a women’s leadership conference
• Recognizing that discussion attendees may range from practitioner to scholar, the presenters will be responsive with questions ranging from research to practice
o In what ways does a feminist perspective lend itself to application?
o What other theoretical approaches (i.e. intersectionality, critical theory, post-structuralism) might have similar potential for application?
o What are challenges in applying such a feminist theoretical lens to your work? What examples have you have encountered or anticipate you might encounter in applying such a lens?
o What are the challenges of applying a feminist theoretical lens in relation to additional identity groups (i.e. gender-identity, race/ethnicity)?
o How do we actually study applying different theoretical approaches such as feminism to leadership education?
o What examples do you have to share of leadership education through such lenses, women’s leadership education in particular?

Presenters will be prepared to offer a number of potential strategies based on scholarship and experience including:
• Strategies for developing voice in female student leaders
• The reconceptualization and understanding of power (and leadership) as collaborative
• Taking action in the form of action projects or action research

Discussion participants will be provided opportunities to learn, discuss, and reflect on the application of a feminist leadership strategy to existing and/or future leadership education initiatives. Participants will also be challenged to consider this in relation to both female- and male-identified students given that feminism is not just a “woman’s issue.”

Participants

• Susan V. Iverson, Manhattanville College

• Brenda McKenzie, Vanderbilt University