FEMINIST LEADERSHIP

FEMINISM IN THE WORKPLACE – OPPORTUNITY OR RISK?

WHAT CAN CORPORATE LEADERS LEARN FROM ACTIVISTS?

”There is no such thing!”, exclaimed a board member, when I began socializing the idea of introducing feminist leadership principles at Plan International where I was CEO some years ago. Back in 2019, the rejection was not entirely unfounded. Very little mainstream Anglo-American management literature had and to this date has considered it relevant for wide adoption. I suspect the reaction also covered concern about the perceived risks around being associated with feminism as well as an assumption that I was claiming that women lead better and innately differently than men.

What is feminist leadership?

I first came across it when I as Assistant Secretary General at UNFPA (the United Nations Sexual and Reproductive Health Agency) met the bold and creative organization CREA. CREA is a feminist international human rights organization based in the Global South and is led by women from the Global South. In 2014 CREA set up an institute with the aim to build the next generation of feminist activists. They state that feminist leadership is not just about women playing leadership roles — it is about capacitating women to lead differently, with feminist values and ideology, to advance social justice for all. 

Does that mean feminist leadership is only for women? I don’t believe it is. Inspired by CREA a number of prominent development, humanitarian and social justice organisations have introduced feminist leadership principles into their general leadership programmes. I was personally inspired by Action Aids principles and introduced similar principles at Plan International. 

Feminist leadership is about striving for equality and looking at power in a new way. A function of feminist leadership is to make power dynamics more transparent. This is something both men and women can and will benefit from. 

For me, feminist leadership is about embedding fairness, equality, justice, and inclusion for everyone regardless of gender, race, age, socio-economic background, disability, or sexual orientation in every action that I take as a leader. It is therefore also about using my power to promote radical transparency, zero tolerance to discrimination, see, hear and value colleagues from non-dominant groups, recognize everybody’s contributions, bring all voices to the table, co-creation, co-leadership, well-being and self-care, empowerment and trust, shared sisterhood, passion, and love. I recognise this is something that’s easy to say but less easy to do – particularly for leaders of organisation with classic hierarchies, in patriarchal societies, and with diverse groups of staff working in different contexts around the world. 

Not just for women

In the development and humanitarian sector, 70% of employees are women and 70% of leaders are men. This same can be said for a vast majority of workplaces in both the public and private sectors. This power imbalance must change and change fast. Outside the workplace, rising inequality is a global challenge, which denies individuals their human rights and undermines social cohesion and prosperity. If humankind wants to see an end to inequality, every leader inside and outside the places where many people spend most of their day must role model and practice the change that we want to see in the world. Feminist leadership principles can help both men and women to do so. 

My friend Michael Kaufman, who has spent most of his career helping men and boys promote gender equality makes a very powerful argument for why men should embrace change. He states: “For years, the focus of my work has been on men’s contradictory experiences of power. Patriarchy is not only a system of men’s power over women, it is also a system of the power of some men over others. What’s more, the dominant ways we’ve defined manhood are impossible for any man to live up to – and thus we set boys and men up for failure”. This is true both in the private and professional spheres of men’s lives. Embracing new leadership approaches can help all men and women bring more of their whole selves into leadership roles.

A journey – not a destination

Feminist leadership – indeed many other types of inclusive and transformational leadership – starts with ourselves as individuals, recognising that we each have our own shortcomings and internal biases and need to work hard to understand them and break them down. We must all persist to challenge the status quo and move out of our comfort zone daily. We need to constantly be questioning whose voice haven’t we heard. Whose perspective has been overlooked? Who can add value to the decision-making process? 

It takes courage to make personal and organisational change happen. Failure is inevitable and part of the process. Perfection is not the goal – constant learning, unlearning and adaptation is. Allies are needed because it’s impossible to advance alone. Ask more questions and start difficult conversations about gender, inclusion, diversity, power abuse, unearned privileges with your peers. Meet with colleagues in all parts of the organisation and listen – really listen. This will make you and your organisation more resilient.  

Beware of judging and measuring the journey of people around you. The personal and organisational transformation that a new leadership approach will yield cannot be boiled down to individual scorecards or KPIs. Consistent and intentional action by yourself, storytelling, and sharing of successes and failure will sustainably embed the change in the long run.

Diversity in the C-suite – more than numbers

Diversity in thinking and leadership approaches is key to corporate success. But this cannot be achieved only through promoting more women or other underrepresented groups into leadership.

Last month, in an article in ‘Børsen’ the Danish business newspaper, senior consultant and occupational psychologist Johanne Grant sums up the existing research as follows (my translation): “research suggests that that the aggregate personality differences between males and females do not necessarily directly translate into leadership.”. In other words, context matters more than gender. 

So, if we want different leadership behaviours in the workplace that embodies more female personality characteristics including but not limited to extraversion, trust, and especially tender-mindedness we must do more than add more women to the leadership cadre in our organisations. This is where I believe feminist leadership can help all organisations optimize and deepen their desire for more diversity, equity, and inclusion. Its introduction needs endorsement from leadership and a strong leadership and mentoring programme for all current and future leaders.

First published on 17 November 2022