1. Applying a Feminist Lens to Women’s Leadership Education
Dr. Brenda L. McKenzie
Senior Lecturer, Vanderbilt University
Introduction – 5 minutes with next slide
--Who is in the room?

2. Learning Objectives
Participants will be able to identify gaps in leadership education that disadvantages female students
Participants will be able to apply ways of incorporating a feminist lens to leadership education on their individual campuses

3. Common Leadership Education
Raise your hands if your campus offers:
Leadership retreats
Semester-long leadership programming
One-time experiences (i.e. speakers, workshops)
Emerging leader programs
Position specific leadership training
Programming focused on specific identities (gender, race/ethnicity, etc.)
10 minutes for this and next slide

4. Appropriateness of College Student Specific Models as Relates to Women
Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership
Relational Leadership Model
Emotionally Intelligent Leadership
Social Change Model
Competency-based Leadership
These are all good models but have some gaps when related to gender-specific leadership development
--Five Practices: has had much research conducted to validate; limited research on model in relation to gender (business student study by Posner in xxx that did address some aspects of gender but more focused on year in school)
--RLM: very limited research on model at all
--EIL: recent research by Haber-Curran, Shankman, and Allen to begin looking at EIL in relation to various identities; pretty new
--SCM: MLS researchers have done some disaggregation of data related to gender, SOC, lgbtq
--Competency: newer approach; lack of research currently

5. Leadership and Gender Nannerl Keohane interview
Co-educational institutions rarely do true co-education
At women’s colleges, women do everything: empowering, never told cannot do anything
Women’s colleges take women’s leadership and success very seriously
Princeton study findings,
10 minutes for next 3 slides
Interviewed in About Campus; former president of Wellesley and of Duke; long and storied HE career; offered perspectives on women, leadership, and HE
Princeton study:
-steering committee to understand concern regarding differential rates ot which women and men were going into leadership
-found a statistically significance between ways women approach leadership and kinds of ways exercised leadership at Princeton
disagreed that top leadership positions (i.e. SG) where they should be
more interest in positions where could make a difference, have an impact

6. Leadership and Gender Kellerman & Rhode
Pipeline presumption of patience: women’s equal representation at top is simply a matter of time
Pipeline is a pipe dream
Has preempted protest, even though women have more voice now than ever before
Double bind; double standards
Even more for women of color

7. Feminist Leadership Feminism aims to give voice to women’s experiences
Feminism raises questions about language, concepts of leadership
Leaders = coordinators, facilitators, collaborators
Feminist leadership focuses on authenticity, empowering others, fairness, striving for social justice and equity
Space to hear women’s voices that have been silenced
Personal
Collaborative
Public
Feminist scholars view leaders as coordinators, facilitators, collaborators (Batliwala, 2011; Chin, 2004; hooks, 1994)
Focus of feminist leadership (Barton, 2006; Caldwell-Colbert & Albino, 2007; Chin, 2004; Porter & Daniels, 2007)
Allows for hearing women’s voices that have been silenced (thurber & Zimmerman, 2002)
--Personal voice: feeling empowered and validated through self-reflection
--Collaborative voice: speaking and sharing with others
--Public voice: becoming agents for change

8. Application Example Kent State Women’s Leadership Institute
One day; focused on undergraduates
Objectives
Flow of day
Planning team included students, faculty, and staff
Plan for on-going engagement in addressing campus issues
20 minutes for next 3 slides
Objectives
--understanding different leadership styles
--assess/articulate personal abilities/obstacles to lead
--think critically about gender and leadership
--ability to confront obstacles to leadership outside of school
--develop skills to be a change agent
Flow
--keynote (CEO, The Institute on Women)
--small groups for activities, processing, reflection
--large groups for broader discussions about issues
--commitments to next steps
--plan for on-going discussions and action taking which did not pan out

9. Application Think-Pair-Share
Individually consider how you might use this approach/lens to existing programs
Pair with someone around you to discuss options
* Large group sharing: What ideas did you come up with that incorporate use of a feminist lens?
T-P-S
Collective action projects
Address with male/male-identified students as well
Self-efficacy development: connect with role models; networking opportunities; female-only programming; reflection
Critical review of readings, presenters, way topics are addressed
Address oppression in curriculum, comments

10. Application Examples/Sharing
Voice development approaches
Creating environments where women feel comfortable speaking up
Session on power of language – deconstructing experiences of being called “bossy”
Action projects
Mentoring programs
Debates/forums
Template suggestion from Kellerman & Rhode
5 minutes
What other ideas do you have or ways you are addressing on your campuses?
Now what? How might you use this information on your campus?
Final comments, questions

11. References/Resources
Batliwala, S. (2001). Feminist leadership for social transformation: Clearing the conceptual cloud. CREA. Retrieved from
Barton, T. R. (2006). Feminist leadership: Building nurturing academic communities. Advancing Women in Leadership Online Journal, 21.
Caldwell-Colbert, A. T., & Albino, J. E. N. (2007). Women as academic leaders: Living the experience from two perspectives. In J. L. Chin, B. Lott, J. K. Rice, & J. Sanchez-Hucles (Eds.) Women and leadership: Transforming visions and diverse voices (pp ). Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing.
Chin, J. L. (2004). Feminist leadership: Feminist visions and diverse voices. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 28, 1-8.
hooks, b. (1994). Teaching to transgress. New York: Routledge.
Kellerman, B., & Rhode, D.L. (2017, January-February). Women at the top: The pipeline as pipe dream. About Campus, 21(6),
Porter, N., & Daniel, J. H. (2007). Developing transformational leaders: Theory to practice. In J.L. Chin, B. Lott, J. K. Rice, & J. Sanchez-Hucles (Eds.) Women and leadership: Transforming visions and diverse voices (pp ). Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing.
Princeton University. (2011). Rerpot of the steering committee on undergraduate women’s leadership. Retrieved from:
Shushok, Jr., F. (2017, January-February). Former Duke and Wellesley president, Nannerl Keohane, offers candid reflections on life, leadership, and the promising future of higher education with Executive Editor, Frank Shushok, Jr. About Campus, 21(6), 4-10.
Storberg-Walker, J., & Haber-Curran, P. (Eds.). (2017). Theorizing women and leadership: New insights and contributions from multiple perspectives. Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing, Inc.
Thurber, F., & Zimmerman, E. (2002). An evolving feminist leadership model for art education. Studies in Art Education, 44(1), 5-27.