Reframing Leadership for Women & Men For Gender Equality
Women Organizing for Change in Agriculture and
Natural Resource Management
Workshop on
REFRAMING LEADERSHIP FOR WOMEN AND
MEN FOR GENDER EQUALITY
22-27TH June, 2009, Nairobi, Kenya
Facilitators:
Jeannette Gurung
Colletah Chitsike
Barun Gurung
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Background 3
Participants 5
Workshop Proceedings 9
Day 1: 22nd June, 2009 9
Day 2: 23rd June, 2009 15
Day 3: 24th June, 2009 22
Day 4: 25th June, 2009 27
Day 5: 26th June, 2009 30
Annex 1: Evaluation of Workshop by Participants 43
Annex 2: Action Plans 44
Background
Women's Leadership in Agriculture and Natural Resource Management to Support Global Advocacy and Organizational Change for Poverty Alleviation
This is a WOCAN project supported by Heifer International and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) to mobilize women and men professionals, and groups and organizations representing poor rural women in Africa and South Asia, to transform agriculture and natural resource management organizations so that the roles and leadership of women as farmers, environmental managers, professionals and decision-makers are fully recognized and supported, in order to assure the equal distribution of responsibilities, rights, benefits and power for rural women to improve their lives, reduce poverty and practice sustainable development. Specifically, the goal is to assist poor rural women emerge from poverty by a) more effectively managing their own agricultural assets, including labour, knowledge and other assets, b) gain access to agricultural and natural resource management (NRM) technologies, services, inputs and markets, and c) have more effective inputs into decision making processes of agricultural and natural resource management organizations that can affect their livelihoods.
The objectives of this project are to:
1. Promote and build capacity of women champions within agriculture and natural resource management organizations, and amongst rural women's groups, by delivering training on leadership, gender and organizational change and training of trainers;
2. Build capacities of poor rural women to generate income from agriculture and forest products through enhanced and effective engagement with markets and through the development of enabling environments in agriculture and NRM institutions;
3. Advocate at national, regional and global levels for greater benefits and decision making power for poor rural women;
4. Promote learning and communication on organizational change and women's leadership in the fields of gender and agriculture/natural resource management.
This project builds from the success of a previous project "Institutionalizing Gender-responsive Research & Development in Agriculture and Natural Resource Management through Women's Networks" supported by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) and implemented in collaboration with the CGIAR System-wide Program on Participatory Research and Gender Analysis (PRGA) from 2006 -2008. Project partners were agriculture departments and research organizations and NGOs in Asia.
Major activities include the provision of training courses on gender and organizational change, women's leadership, men's support to women leaders, and advocacy for female and male change agents in selected partner organizations. Activities will be initiated with a week-long workshop on gender and organizational change with selected partners from Cameroon, Ghana and other African countries in late May 2008 and in August 2008 for partners in S. Asia; the second part of this course will be held 3-4 months following the first workshop. During the second workshop, change agents of partner organizations will develop Action Plans for activities with women's groups engaged in forestry and agriculture, and for activities for gender mainstreaming within the partner organizations themselves. WOCAN staff will provide intensive backup support to the implementation of the Action Plan. Another week-long workshop on leadership (through separate course for women and men) and advocacy for change agents will be provided in addition to the training on gender and organizational change.
Leadership for Women and Men for Gender Mainstreaming
The objective of the leadership course for women and men was to enhance participants' leadership abilities and competencies and be able to:
• Recognize the impact of gender dynamics in their organization and community
• Examines organizational power dynamics and their impact on careers and work
• Lead strategically
• Build and lead teams
• Build a robust network of influential and powerful women leaders
An additional objective was to ensure involvement of men in supporting women's leadership through:
• understanding masculinities and its role as gatekeepers of current gender orders and as potential resistors of change
• to separate the popular notion that equates ‘gender' with women, that effectively marginalizes women and women's struggles even in the name of mainstreaming, and produces one of the paradoxes of the mainstreaming approaches that treat only one half of the gender equation
• and demonstrate that leaving out men addresses only the symptoms of the underlying gender system
Participants
No. Names Organization Discipline telephone Physical address Country Email
1 Dusengemungu Leonidas ISAR technology transfer unit Sociology/agricultural extension +250-788617194 ISAR, Rwanda
B P 138 Butare
Afrique Centrale
Rwanda leonidasdusenge@yahoo.com
2 Ruth Masha Heifer international Kenya Animal health +254-020-38716923 Box 76478-00508, Nairobi
Kenya ruth.masha@heiferkenya.org
3 Elizabeth Nyambura Ssendiwala ASARECA Gender +256-712608555 P.O.Box 35665, Kampala, Uganda
Uganda nyamburaliz@yahoo.ca
4 Charlotte Wrigley-Asante University of Ghana Geography and Resource Development +233 0244649761 Department of Geography and Resource Development, Accra Ghana
Ghana cwrigley27@hotmail.com
5 Jill Carr- Harris PLAGE-Bangladesh Gender mainstreaming C/O EKTA Parishad
Ganthi Bhawan Bhopal, Madhya, Pradesh, India
Bangladesh jillcarrharris@gmail.com
6 Felix K Tete Heifer international, Zimbabwe Projects planning and management +263-912816974
+263 54223326 Box 84-10th street, Gweru, Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe felix@heiferzim.co.zw
fkmtete@yahoo.com
7 Ibrahim Gaya University of Maiduguri/PROSAB Agricultural economist +234-08023746917 Department of Agricultural Economics, P. M. B 1069, University of Maiduguri, Bornosta Nigeria
NIGERIA ibrahimgayya@yahoo.com
8 Kanchan Lama WOCAN Gender mainstreaming in public sector 977-1-5006034
9841-221156 Balkumari- 9 Lalitpur, Nepal Nepal kanchan.lama01@gmail.com
9 Rachel Wangu Mutua SCC-VI Agroforestry Economist +254-722-288940 Box 3160, Kisumu
Kenya wangu.mutua@viafp..org
10 Sefora Masia Centre for Development of People (CDP) Gender and development, training and communication +27-12-361-4850 Box 40298,
Garsfontein 0060,
South Africa
South Africa sefora@telkomsa.net
11 Nachimuka M Cheepa Heifer International , Zambia Agriculture-livestock development +260 212 613329 Plot 1096, 1st Floor, Trininty House Buteko Avenue, P.O.Box 70877, Ndola Zambia Zambia nacheepa@yahoo.com
nachimuka@heifer.org.zm
12 Jane Tarh Takang WOCAN-West Africa Gender and development +237-77632672 C/O CFOR P.O.BOX 2008 Messa-Yaunde, Cameroon Cameroon janetarh@wocan.org
13 Rahiaramanana Daniele FOFIFA Agronomy 261-32-02 523 27 FOFIFA BOX 206
201 Fianarantsoa
Madagascar
Madagascar fofifa_fnr@yahoo.fr
14 Sarah Ayeri Ogalleh CETRAD/ GWA Environmental studies/ gender +254-720-368-150
+254-737787801 P.O.BOX 144, Nanyuki
Kenya sarahayeri@yahoo.com
sarahogalleh@gmail.com
15 Colletah Chitsike International Centre for Development Oriented Research in Agriculture (ARC) Adult Education +27 12 427 9919
+27 763123118 PO Box 8783
Pretoria 0001
South Africa
South Africa chitsikec@arc.agric.za
colletah@yahoo.com
16 Jeannette Gurung WOCAN Forestry, gender and development +1 202 331-9099 1775 K St. NW, Suite 410
Washington, DC 20006
USA jeannettegurung@wocan.org
17 Barun Gurung WOCAN anthropology +1 301 871-7316 13403 Norden Drive
Silver Spring, MD 20906 USA gurungbarun@yahoo.com
Observer
No. Names Title Organization Discipline telephone Physical address Country Email
1 Anne Stanneveld Director CERES CERES Consultants Consultant and Coach +3165-333-2050 Westerstyfsel makerspad 25B
1511 BA Oostzaan
The Netherlands The Nether-lands info@ceresconsultants.
eu
Workshop Proceedings
Day 1: 22nd June, 2009
1. Setting the Context and Self Discovery
• Welcome remarks by Jeannette Gurung
• Brief background of why the training is important
• Attention focused on gender issues as a result of male dominance in many aspects
So far, this is a turning point, at the global level, within three months, there is been a flurry of attention to e.g. agriculture (food security), climate change, financial crisis. These crises occurring at the same time with multiple issues need much more attention. The donors are committed to tackling these issues. Many countries are doubling the budget for agriculture, and small holder farmers are the key to achieving or attacking climate change, food insecurity, as well as women being a majority of small holder farmers. Most institutions are re-orienting their policies to meet or address these demands and challenges.
Many of institutions related to agriculture and natural resources management have neglected gender, women etc. and gender mainstreaming is one of the strategies to ensure this is taken into account. However, so far, we have not seen these taking course in institutions, and hence a new kind of gender mainstreaming is called for to link the rural women farmers, professionals and the agricultural institutions and natural resources. In order to achieve food security, how do we translate this new agenda? It's a great challenge, but a fantastic opportunity
2. How does Change Happen? Setting Centre Stage for the Training
The workshop was opened by Jeannette Gurung
Definition of Terms
Mainstreaming: the process of assessing the implications for women and men of any planned action, including legislation, policies or programs, in all areas and at all levels. It is a strategy for making women's as well as men's concerns and experiences an integral dimension of the design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of policies and programs in all political, economic, societal spheres so that women and men benefit equally and inequality is not perpetuated and the ultimate goal is to achieve gender equality (UNESCO, 2003)
Overview of Training Objectives
1. To prepare all the participants as leaders and change agents within their institutions
2. To develop or refine the course so that it can be rolled out in the future
3. To build regional teams of trainers who will assist in rolling out the course
4. Develop various strategies and plans of action together in order to work
Introduction of Participants
Exercise: Self Presentation
In this exercise, all participants described themselves from a personal perspective, which highlighted the following aspects of the participants' personal lives:
• Important events in the participants' past and how they have shaped the person today
• What do you like and dislike about gender and leadership issues
• What is the most important in your life today, both at home and on the job
• What are your strengths and weaknesses as a person, a s a leader, as a father, mother, etc and how does this affect your leadership qualities
• What are the values (negative and positive) that steer your leadership and in what contexts
• What have you done in the last 5 years that you are most proud of or most ashamed of?
• What worries you most in your personal and professional life?
• What makes you happiest
• What unique skills or talents do you have that will help this group perform more effectively
• What significant changes would you like to make your life and why?
From the participants' experiences, this report has highlighted two experiences from two participants as a showcase of gender based violence and discrimination as demonstrated by experience 1 below.
Experience 1
Family: I was the third child of my parents, two elder brothers and then two sisters, including me. My parents were different than others in my neighborhood. They were progressive and positive in thinking about girl child equally with boys. My brothers had never asked me to work for them. My parents raised me amidst an open and free culture, no domination. I was able to take my own decisions about my sports, music, education and outing. I was one among the best talented students in my state and always was happy and cheerful.
Marriage: Marriage was a turning point in my life. I had a very brilliant husband. I knew him before. After marriage he brought me to Nepal, and we went to a very remote place in Nepal. Everything was new for me,--place, culture, people, social values, language, etc. I adapted to the situation very easily. There was no any proper road, no electricity, no transport, no communication and no water supply in that village. But I was happy with my husband, I loved him. The government offered me the job of Principal of a high school, as there was no any educated woman in that district. It was a big relief for me. I was very simple, young and innocent. I worked and my husband started to keep idle. Also he started torturing me out of no any reason. I became a victim of domestic violence of all kinds. But I was helpless. I could not protest him, thinking the next day he will correct himself. I was very sophisticated in my behavior and tried to persuade him to stop violent behavior but he became more and more unbearable for me. By the meantime, I had two children, one girl and one boy. I went under a situation of trauma through violence for 12 years. I had to run away from place to place to escape his torture. Many sisters from the village helped me to survive torture. I was transferred from that place to another place by government (they wanted to help me). This was a bit comfortable place, with at least facility for transport. The wife of Zonal commissioner confidentially helped me to run away from my husband with my children to my parental town. It was a travel from Nepal to the farthest part of India. But this also could not help me. He was brought there by his brothers to solve the problem. One of my old class friends came to see me and was moved by my situation. She started counseling me and awoke me after several months of counseling. I started to look at myself differently,-revived my lost spirit and love for my own life, I realized the importance of myself, for children and for my nation. I started thinking that what I tolerated so far was a nonsense behavior of myself. My life is valuable and I must save it from domestic violence. For the first time after so many years of torture, I opened my mouth, said to my husband, "This is not going to happen anymore. You take care of your life and I shall take care of myself and the children". He was stunned, shocked at seeing my determination and I do not know why but he stopped talking, coming home and did not try to please me at all. Somehow I realized that I would be safe in Nepal rather than at my hometown. There was no any support system in state at that time. And I went back to Nepal to seek a safer shelter and a job to survive, as it was more and more unbearable situation for me. Fortunately, I was able to find a job and safe shelter (staff quarter) within a very good boarding school.
I divorced my husband. But I was still traumatized. After sometime, I got a job in Action Aid, and proceeded to get jobs in many reputed NGOs that provided me opportunities to be in contact with many good sisters around and share my pains. I worked with Jeannette Gurung in 1986-87 in Action Aid. We used to work with rural women, sometime sleeping just on a mat in village situation. I learned about women's pains and suffering through my own life and knew that all women have some kind of suffering. But I was not able to systematically view the dynamics. Many sisters supported me to come out of the traumatic situation. I started shaping an active and successful career life and raise my children. Later I learned gender issues and improved my knowledge and skill through working with Vicky Wilde and Arja Vania Mattila in 1991-1992 for FAO's Gender analysis and forestry development framework at regional level that provided me exposure to learn about GAD vision. I read GAD books, including Caroline Moser and many and I was able to understand gender issues. I started acting in the resourceful sectors, e.g., agriculture, forestry and livestock where women could grab resources for economic empowerment. Because I was by now aware about the discrimination between boy and girl in case of inheritance of property, land and all gainful resources and so became aggressive to make question about injustice and unfair distribution of positions, resources and opportunities. I not only started questioning discrimination, but also started influencing the institutions for change to address women's human rights for equality. I helped many rural women to gain leadership positions and make gains by influencing organizational policies and systems. Staying single, I never repented about my loneliness; rather I used my time for best productive results in changing women's life. Later I entered into a marriage of convenience but could not continue more than two years. I cannot accept any man other than my own husband; this is a mental situation that always controlled my thinking. My dream is to always think, write and work on women's human rights agenda, till my death and to live happily with my grandchildren.
Experience 2
Experience two, it gives hope that indeed, gender equality and equity is not far from being achieved. This is very clear from the experience shared by a participant who worked with women in India, and is a clear case of how a call for gender equality can be rewarding when women and men, who are majority poor join hands in support for common call-gender equality and the fight towards a common goal.
Women Empowerment in India: How does one work with women in rural areas who are poor in India and how to get them involved in their own development? This was a question that lingered on my mind always while I went about working with poor women in India. I found as a foreigner working in India who was building local leadership and doing community building was an important method to empower women. Particularly this was the case with women from indigenous and low caste communities.
An example of social change that is transformative was an action within a people's organization called Ekta Parishad (Unity Forum) in which we held a march in October 2007. In this march 25,000 poor people walked from Gwalior to Delhi in pursuit of their land rights. Of this 40% were women. In preparing for this march, women collected grain and one rupees daily for three years to ensure that there was sufficient food at home when they joined this march. Being the daily wage for labourers, this march was essential for them to take on this action.
So about 9,000 women from all communities in India met and ate, slept and walked on the national highway. The women took on untraditional roles on the highway that they may not normally do but it was a fluid situation. They patrolled at night, made speeches, met the media and showed an unparalleled confidence. This March was being carried out during the high holidays when normally women are expected at home in the villages. The women saw it as a do or die struggle. After reaching Delhi, the government caved into their demands. Moreover they went back as changed people.
Key Issues Arising from the Participants Presentations
• The need to be cautious not to focus excessively on women and leave out men, because this is likely to have a negative impact on the achievement of gender equality
• Part of the outcomes of participants in gender based positions have utilized their experiences to improve their work environment and even improve the lives of others through incorporation of gender in all their aspects of life. They recommend that gender sensitivity should be a way of life for the gender champions.
• That different approaches to gender are important and they act as synergists to the achievement of gender equality.
• The existing women organizations in various countries such as Kenya, Uganda etc have also culminated into the formation of counter male groups e.g., in Kenya, Maendeleo ya Wanawake, has its counter part, Maendeleo ya Wanaume, where men are also given a chance to report their cases from men abuse from their wives/spouses too.
• Gender is still not viewed as an important issue
• The issue of Christianity is also an issue and sometimes an impediment to gender equality, especially when people interpret that women are subordinate to men.
• There is need to push the understanding of gender to all
• The issue of how do we balance power in gender? Gender is a mixture/complex of several factors
• Sometimes it's a matter of choices to some people
• Patriarchal systems within most society settings have resulted in shaping most participants at the meeting. However, greater understanding of social change can happen without violence.
• Gender issues are actually an issue of justice and fairness
• The urge of discovering why women do bad things to each other also arose e.g. the PhD syndrome
• Definition of some terms used in our day to day life arose, such words included nagging, with participants not able to define that word, while also the issue of retaining their spouses' (husbands) by widowed women also arose. The question is, is it a choice for such women?
• Gender is a social construct. Therefore, there is need to de-link ourselves from our culture and link ourselves to other cultures. So then how do we get out of the social construct of leadership, look forward to a new leadership that is coming.....the world is opening up to a new gender leadership in the world.
• Time is the most important resource we have and that commitment to the cause- ‘gender equality' should be key
All the issues raised served as a guideline to the training to ensure that all the issues raised by the participants are captured in the training.
3. Concept of Frames: a Framework for Thinking About Leadership
The concept of Frames and Frame Analysis was introduced as a framework that would guide the discussions for the remaining part of the workshop.
Frames
Interpretive frameworks we live by (key words: frames, cognitive structures, scripts, interpretive frameworks).
As actors, we live our lives according to interpretive frameworks to make sense of the world. Such sense-making happens through a combination of cultural memory, language and a process of interpreting actions and words of others through interpretive frameworks that are deeply embedded in our views and attitudes and predispose us to think and act in certain ways.
How do Frames Act on Us?
Frames as interpretive frameworks determine people's behavior in several ways:
• They are deeply embedded in people's views and attitudes and most of us are unconscious of our frames. These unconscious frames are evoked through key words and metaphors (language)
• New information is configured to conform to this dominant frame, and as a result, if ‘facts' do not fit these, the new information is usually abandoned
• Attitude change cannot happen simply by providing new information, but rather requires changes in the dominant frame itself
Exercise: Sharing of Experiences Depicting how Frames Act on Us
Examples from participants on experiences from work
Sometimes identifying the FRAMES we are working with is a very important step to ensuring that we can devise methods of reframing the existing frames. Example: in a meeting of scientists, who were dealing with beans, gender issues were excluded and women particularly, were left out just because the scientists assumed that beans were only for men. But when a question was raised....who cooks the beans? It was realized that actually women are part and parcel of the project and thus gender issues in relation to the women were included in such a project.
Another example is, that the majority of farmers of the world are female, yet the global frame is that the farmer(s) are the male(s) and their wife/wives helping him/them. But the truth is, the farmers from the practical perspective, are female (women). So far, there have been milestones to achieving this conviction, whereby, more people are getting convinced about the same. And this demonstrates that sometimes it takes the political miles and strategizing to achieve this.
The participants were then asked to summarize the key lessons from frames and frame analysis.
Key lessons for participants:
• When you are reframing, you have to understand the frame of who you are trying to reframe
• That because you understand the frame of your participants...people... does not mean that you have to have to compromise your moral vision.
• Its not so easy to even get inside one's brains to change there frames.......and we have to also consider power relations
• Twenty years of research and talking has obviously recreated frames, and currently, the cause of the change.
• The importance of understanding the frames (our own and others') we are working with
Homework /Assignment
The technical concept of FRAMES (handout).
Day 2: 23rd June, 2009
1. Self Discovery
Participants Expectations
• A leadership training course and how to know how to roll it out
• Coming up with a realistic workable action plan
• Making new friends
• Establish relationships and build networks
• Learn from others experiences
• Learn how to change individual and institutional attitudes towards gender
• Learn the skills needed for gender mainstreaming
• Ensure a team cable of implementing leadership course
• Acquire skills and knowledge on gender leadership
• Learn how best to transform livelihoods
• Learn on tools and techniques for managing conflicts in leadership
• To get a certificate in gender and leadership
• Become an effective change agent
The Avoids by Participants
• Loss of focus on workshop objectives
• Starting lessons late and ending late
• Absence from lessons
• Mobile phones ringing (they should be on silent mode)
• Keeping time and all days work begins at 8.30am and ends at 5-30pm
• going back home with a business as usual attitude after the workshop
2. Group Work and Presentations
The participants were asked to identify the major emerging themes from day one
Identification of Emerging Themes/Frames from Participants Experiences/Sharing
Group One Presentation
Group Two Presentations
• Gender mainstreaming diluted women's empowerment. Making it palatable for decision makers
• Women viewed as invisible to decision makers in governance structure
• Abusive male power leading to harassment is seen as a cultural right. This has resulted in male leaders asserting themselves even at work
• In situations of abusive relationships, women often try to please men
• Male leaders assert themselves because they do not delink family context from workplace
• Male dominated constructs often internalized by women....yearling to ‘invisible', lacking self confidence' etc
• With male dominated situations, sometimes women gain self confidence and initiate action termed as ‘overcoming extreme challenges'
• Male dominated social constructs is reinforced through language
• Labeled as disloyal, do not fit in' if you express opposition
• Challenges of having a woman boss-non- acceptable of authority
• Too caring-being motherly as not acceptable especially at work
• Women who act too strongly get put down by men and women because both the men and women share a patriarchal vision
• Women constantly multi-tasking, handling different and diverse situations to create harmony
Group Three Presentations
What shapes our frames?
• Family: child, parent, spouse (all manifested in our roles and responsibilities) and there were abundant examples from the participants on their own life experiences
• Education and interactions
• Institutions that we work with
What are the emerging issues from the identified frames?
• Diverse interests, dreams, thinking, interests etc. this means that we should aim to harness all the different talents and skills, thinking, dreams etc for the benefit of gender work.
• The power of positive and negative re-enforcements as demonstrated by two cases of childhood, where one child is intimidated at child hood and anther is encouraged to speak out, and talk their minds out at child hood.
• Frames are not static just like culture, they are dynamic. This can be demonstrated by the changing roles of women, whereas women were viewed as home keepers and men providers, women have recently changed roles and they are providers of families
Group Four Presentation
Relation and influence of frames on human behavior
• Gender bias is not in-born
• Frameworks are generational i.e. from our past
• Information that we receive help enforce our dominant frames
• Dealing with frames requires strategizing
• Awareness raising relies on provision of information which has to conform to the frameworks
• When one understands a dominant framework, its easy to identify its weaknesses
• Influence of both parents in both masculine ad feminine values in children
Key lessons from the group presentations
• Abuse (theme) destroys the woman's self esteem
• The question of importance of networks arose, and it was emphasized that networks help to recognize that gender biases are not normal. Furthermore, the networks are important for women to learn from each other such as psychological benefits of women in networks. Networks are an alternative framework to reframe because it creates space for one to identify and become their own agency of change.
• The issue of mentorship and coaching especially at the professional level is important even for gender mainstreaming.
• It is important for traumatized women to undergo therapy, although networking is one way of helping and encouraging such women.
• Women considered as ‘guest or travelers' etc as a result of the attitude that women are supposed to be at home, and therefore when they are in offices, they are just guests or travelers etc.
• Socialization process is a domestic sphere, and success is controlled by men, simply because they control it.
• Women leaders at offices, have to reframe to other positions at home. For example, the Former vice president of Uganda (Dr. Specioza Kazibwe) who was slapped by her husband from her being away from home as a result of her official duties. Also the example of Lesotho men who go to South Africa to work in the Mines to earn a living for their families and are allowed to visit their homes once a year. Their wives back at home bring up their children with the social constructs. So then, if women are the ones who bring up children are spend 70-80% time with children, how can they (women) use this power to genderise our children? The question of how do we women reframe to ensure we bring up our children with genderised minds? Perhaps, a clear example can be demonstrated by President Obama of USA, who on father's day holiday this year brought together representatives and urged them to take responsibility of their children's upbringing.....this can serve as a beginning of reframing.
• The importance of differentiating the office and home roles is a personal choice, although a good leader should be able to use her leadership skills to enhance both her roles at the office and at home
• The media (TV, radio etc) are also responsible for shaping our frames.
• Men are abstract in there presentations
• We should not attribute feminity and masculinity to emotions from women and men.
Feminity and Masculinity
The next session was an introduction to the concept (s) of masculinities and femininities in order to generate a better understanding of how these social constructs determine our ideas of gender.
Definitions
Masculinity: it is hard to pin down. Although it is an idealized version of what it means to be male, there is no single definition of it. Ideas of masculinity change from one society to another, from one year to the next, from one sub culture to the next. There are different masculinities, different definitions of manhood particular to different groups of men.
Features of dominant masculinities: Although no one set of definition exists for masculinity, there are some enduring and pervasive features that characterize it:
• Being in control
• Having mastery of self
• Taking charge
• Images of manhood are flexible and changing but they are a presence in our lives as if they were a natural reality
• Men exercise power over women and other men, based on class, race, nationality, etc
• In many societies, there is no challenge to masculinities and as such, there is a world of certainty - a certainty based on unchallenged power and an uncontested vision of manhood
• But the simplicity of past moral and religious belief systems cannot possibly encompass the complex and changing realities
• There is a need to move away from the notion that gender: - masculinity and femininity - exists naturally as a timeless absolute at the core of our lives.
Key Questions
• Is gender static or changing?
• What are the different types of masculinities?
• What are hegemonic masculinities?
3. Discussion that Followed From the Presentation: Summary
Masculinity depends on the context. For example, masculinity could vary, e.g. there could be western masculinity and African masculinity and none of them is dominant over the other. Masculinity can exist in multiple ways. Masculinity can have such characteristics such as: controlling, aggression, homophobia (fear of homosexuality), patronizing and patriarchy. Status quo is normally defined by the dominant masculinity. Hegemonic masculinities are not only manifested by men alone, but also by women. For example, a woman leader who does not show the characteristics of masculinity is not considered a leader.
Attributes of Feminity/Idealized Feminity
• Mediating control through someone else e.g. a mother in-law mediating her powers through her son.
• Submissive
• Caring/nurturing
• Matronizing (opposite of patronizing)
• Quiet
• Notion of competiveness amongst women
• Adapting to different situations
• Harmonizing (Women like to keep the harmony- peace keepers)
Alternative masculinity exhibits attributes of idealized feminity, and mostly men would not like to be associated with this since its stigmatizing....based on the social constructs.
In leadership, there are times one has to use masculinity while at the same time, there are times when one has to use feminity, however, there should be autonomy to decide to see which is more applicable and at what time.
Reframing
The discussion on masculinities and femininities was followed by an introduction to Reframing.
There are three things within a frame:
• moral vision
• roles and responsibilities
• scenario
Each frame beyond containing the three aspects is embedded in emotion content
How do we reframe?
• We do so (reframe) by identifying our moral vision
• Then we identify the roles and responsibilities that would be of various actors in the new scenario. The scenario here is women's leadership. The question is how do we envision leadership in institutions where women and men are enacting the idealized feminity rather than the dominant masculinity?
• How do we move our vision from an efficiency argument to one of empowerment and transformation?
4. Group Presentations on Women's Leadership
Group One
Moral Vision: equal number of men and women in decision making positions at all levels in organizations
Enabling Factors: Some of the key aspects considered critical to creating or providing an enabling environment include:
• Political commitment
• Technical expertise
• Accountability
• Organizational culture
• Gender sensitive policies
• Gender sensitive trainings for all categories of staff
• TORs, appraisals
• Gender code of conduct//behavior
• Action plans and budgeting
• Engender training curriculum
• Gender working groups and gender focal persons
• Language symbols,
• Mentoring and counseling
• Incentives to staffs
• Family support
Group Two
Women's Leadership Moral Vision: empowered women leaders as change agents to influence decisions and bring about change in general management of institutions
Some of the enabling factors that needed to be considered were viewed from two perspectives:
At individual level: there is need for:
• Capacity Building : leadership of general management, communication skills, resources mobilizations, strategic planning at decision making
• Negotiation and advocacy
• Reporting
• Networking
At organizational level: there is need for:
• Political will to introduce and integrate general management such as, whose support can you use? Is it the boss, the board, the key partners, the political leaders etc
• Accountability: meaning clear plans and follow up strategies, funding available and staff motivation
• Organization culture: gender policy, code of conduct, modeling gender leadership, recognize who specific needs and make provision for flexibility
Group Three
Women Leadership Moral Vision: leadership that enables empowerment of the poor farmer especially women through gender-responsive institutions, policies and processes.
Conceptualizing an ideal woman leader: She is the one who is
• caring and nurturing
• Sensitive to the needs of others
• Consultative
• Bringing the best out of others
• Open to learning and constructive criticisms
• Least by example i.e. role model
Enabling Factors:
1. Institutional commitment/political will
• gender responsive policies and structures
• budget lines
2. Technical capacity
• adequate capacity ensured
• establish women's networks and mentoring mechanisms
3. Accountability
• gender sensitive Monitoring and evaluation
• gender sensitivity should be a criteria for hiring or recruitment and performance assessment
4. Organizational culture
• Supportive structures
• Promote more women to senior positions
• Create women space for interaction
• Gender sensitization
• Sensitize senior management
• Connection to civil society i.e. policy versus practice
• Bring in men's support to women.
• Leaders' movement to model a new way, influence male decision makers.
Group Four
Moral Vision: humanizing leadership: from a moral authority not for political power. To help change male dominated leadership that's dehumanizing
Enabling Factors:
• Build a team that starts with ourselves such as formation of networks for men that will interact with women
• Resource mobilization
• Proposal writing to help and sell the idea of networking
• Train others who share our vision and similar pain to increase networking
Day 3: 24th June, 2009
1. Building Action Plans
Recap of the previous days work
What went on well on Tuesday 23rd June, 2009?
• Idea of forming a men's network and social movement
• Diversifying information of vision and enabling factors ‘women to be in leadership ‘that requires synthesizing
• There was very rich interaction that led to transformation of participants within the workshop
• What is the level of men's participation in the workshop?
• What skills do we need of men to steer leadership of women
• The men's group was inspiring, i.e. how many of us have been inspired by men, and how do we continue this so that such groups of men comes together every year so as to influence others. How do we support this for our women's benefit
• Are we becoming too abstract at times?
Key lessons
• Use of symbols in representation of men and women and the different interpretations of the same is also key to our modeled attitudes and is a component of our upbringing e.g. the biological symbols used for male-men and female-women
• Songs are one way of passing knowledge and information among the participants
• The idealized masculine leadership in essence is totalized and anticipates that all the persons, men and women would fit in it. However, this is not usually the case because often women are the ones who suffer and women are forced to work out strategies to cope with the leadership. Furthermore, women have to have mechanisms to know this and be able to cope.
• When creating change, the motive is often to bring change, change that is not there at the time or better than what we have. However, the nature of culture is exclusive especially for those who are not there. The question is how do we create exclusiveness.
Moral vision: organizations seeking to be healthy, where women and organizations shares power, authority and decision making for the sake of social, legal, political, economic, and cultural equity (wellbeing) that leads to real choices for all.
Key words and key messages from the vision are:
• Healthy
• Shares power
• Authority
• Decision making
• Equity
Exercise
Examine the spirit of the vision given above, look at all the issues and make them activities
• How do we activate the strategies?
Group One: Men's group
Moral Vision: men for equitable leadership
Strategies Activities Milestones
Enabling Factors
Build a team that starts with ourselves -network of men
• develop a course
• plan network of men trainers • Book course
• Validating the course
• Network
• Trainer competence
Resource mobilization
Proposal writing to sell out the idea of networking • Develop proposals
• Marketing the project • Proposals
• Resources mobilized
Train others who share our vision and similar work to increase network • Select trainers (TOTs)
• Trainings
• Scaling up/scaling out Social movements
Risk Management
Train men in our culture
Training men more powerful • Physicality
• Intellectually equipped
Key issues coming out from the presentation:
• Entry point for men in order to share ideas, and identify the trainers i.e. men trainers that can promote an engendered leadership.
• Unique equitable leadership does it create demand
• All the men have been trained in gender mainstreaming, and thus, gender mainstreaming packaged with leadership will create its own demand, i.e. it can trigger its own demand
• Scaling up and scaling up: the TOT brings out more trainers, and this automatically scales up projects
• To ensure there is authority and respect. Sometimes participatory approach may not be viable for training men who are more powerful and gender mainstreaming, and sometimes, we may have to use other methodologies to achieve this.
• The idea of MOCAN may not be viable especially because it will almost create competing/competition between WOCAN and MOCAN. So, the network of men should work closely with WOCAN to steer up the goal of achieving equitable leadership that incorporates both men and women for the benefit of men and women.
• Men need to be trained especially in the agricultural based institutions and this could be a critical point. In the social movement (with common interest persons in gender equity and leadership) will be accommodative to all persons, those who want to support, facilitate, etc with an ultimate goal of minimizing the factors that lead or otherwise predispose women to vulnerability.
• Do you foresee the development of teams with women trainers that would set the platform as trainers. Although it's hard to work with men alone, especially because men always need women to steer up re-examinations.
Group Two
Moral Vision: organizations, where women share power, authority, and decision making for the sake of socio-legal, political, economic and cultural equality.
This vision is based on MDG 3: Achieving gender equality and empower women.
Activities:
Build skills and capacity Media campaigns Networks
• Management skills
• Basic accounting
• Communication
o PR media computer
o Reports, proposals • TV
• Internet
• Posters
• Brochures
• Bill boards
This would challenge the existing frames • Database of existing network
• Database of women funders
• Negotiation skills
• Networking skills
• Mentoring skills
• Self esteem
• How to behave in a male domain • Networking for moral support
• Create informal sharing spaces
• Conflict resolution
• Team building
Group Three
Moral Vision: where women and men in organizations equitably share power, authority and decision making for the sake of social, legal, economic and cultural wellbeing.
Activities:
1. Political will/ institutional commitment
a) Gender awareness raising for key decision makers and management in the organizations ( board, senior management)
b) Develop new or reframe existing organizational policies to include:
• Information on available key decision making positions in the organizations
• Appraisal of key decision making positions to reframe for gender equity to increase women's numbers
c) Capacity building strategy for gender mainstreaming
d) Making resources (budgets) available for gender mainstreaming, gender training and added capacity
2. Technical capacity
a) Develop training needs for staff at all levels
• self esteem
• gender sensitive leadership skills
• gender sensitive communication skills
• negotiation skills
b) Implementing gender sensitive strategies
3. Accountability
a) Develop gender sensitive strategies plans
b) Develop gender sensitive M and E
c) Develop gender-sensitive HR policies and staff development plans that include:
• Staff motivation
• flexible working conditions for women
4. Organizational culture
a) Develop supporting organization structures that enable development of:
• Networks and partnerships for e gender mainstreaming (civil society, NGOs, CBOs, FBOs etc)
b) Develop a gender sensitive code of conduct for organization (language, attitude, mindsets, sexual harassment etc)
c) Put in place a gender-sensitive communication strategy
Key issues:
• The woman leadership is implicit but in the case of the presentation, its explicit
• It needs to come out very clearly and the meeting is necessary to focus/privilege on woman leadership
Group Four
Moral Vision: alternative engendered women's leadership that shares power, authority, and decision making that uses bottom up approaches for increasing equity and well being for all.
The group developed a set of principles and then strategies as follows:
Principles:
• An organization that respects class, aces, gender and religion
• An Organization that supports both men and women to go through a process of deconstructing and reconstruction gender identities
• An Organization that promotes acceptance and legitimize women's style of leadership
• An Organization working towards a horizontal and participatory organizational structure that is based on cooperative principles
• An organization with sufficient number of women leaders to sustain and support the organizations moral vision
Strategies include:
1. Governance
• Organization restructure
- roles and responsibilities
• Accountability
• Management teams
• Joint responsibility
• Consensus building
2. Building alliances within the organizations and outside i.e. taking on board all stakeholders
• Advocacy and lobbying
• To share moral vision with others
3. Capacity building
• Sensitizing both men and women
• Training to improve skills
• Communication
4. Strategic planning
Day 4: 25th June, 2009
1. Leadership Skills
The fourth day focused on the relationship between leadership skills and power. The facilitator emphasized the notion that one cannot talk of leadership without touching on the role of power.
This brief introduction was followed by the exercise in which participants were asked to identify what power is; what skills were needed to influence self and others, and how they use power to influence others.
Definition of power based on participants
o Control
o Force (that can help bring change)
o Change
o Command
o Influence
o Access and control
• In essence, power in many minds including the participants, power is about control, and lacks the feminine aspects of power. However, the training aims at making participants to move away from control to connection. Hence the skills that we need in order to move from control to connection (connecting precedes content).
• Leadership should be collective control, which deviates from the normally conceived control that is not shared.
• However, the type of power we use will depend on the preconceived ideas we have of the persons we are dealing with.
• What are the skills we can inculcate to ensure that this kind of power control is not abusive
• However, changes in power relations especially when one tries to use the feminine power, they are not alluded as being authoritative. And hence, this means that one actually shifts from the normal frame which people are used to. Sometimes within our office environment, it becomes difficult. However, we can use some kind of communication that is motivation oriented.
• The idea of connecting while we are in leadership is very useful and is instrumental in influencing our relationship with others, and they are likely to do the work better and happy.
• Shared tasks, responsibilities, roles etc, should also ensure that communication is also shared to assist in meeting the objectives of the organizations.
• Charismatic, enabling environment
• Some leaders are authoritative, instill fear in their staffs etc,
• For leadership to be effective there must be clear defined responsibilities without the leader having to be command oriented, forceful etc.
• Good leadership should have skills of saying things that are not patronizing, for example, when a leader and you have staffs that have achieved the deadline, and not talking about the ones who never met the deadlines. Rather, a good leader should talk to the staffs, and seek connection rather than be directive.
Focus on women leadership (Power and Leadership)
• Reframing, as women leaders, we need to look for the principles that entail good women leadership and point of convergence, deviating from the dominant leadership.
• And leadership should be assertive, humane, self confident.
• Women leadership sometimes have problems, they start their leadership with the humane style but people don't take her seriously, and so, sometimes, they are forced to revert to the conventional dominant masculinity leadership. Hence, we need to understand and reflect to resist or refuse to cooperate in a dignified way to the dominant leadership. We need to be clear on where the limits are. Where do we cease to cooperate within our boundaries?
• Enabling environment should be engendered (reframed), to ensure there is connectivity. These include coaching, acknowledging the works of others etc
• Self confidence comes with knowledge
• Listening and being aware when someone is speaking for you, and have to develop skills to stop it without looking like you are too intimidating.
• Sharing leadership: Giving up leadership, power is also important, its more important how many leaders you create, and so the skill of self control is very critical. Once you share leadership, you even become a stronger leader, empowered leader etc.
• There is no point in articulating a vision for the future if the organizational culture will not support it.
• Anyone can become a leader
• A lot of leadership has to be given space, to become a leader
• Leadership for change i.e., emphasis that everyone is a leader, be it at family level, at office level, at personal life etc.
Exercise
Participants were then asked to outline sources of personal power using their organizational context. Put yourself in the center and think of the people you have influence over and those you have influence on.
The Venn diagram is critical to ensure that we are able to identify our sources of power, the people we influence, and those that influence us.
2. Summary from Morning Session
Sources of power
• Expertise, experience, skills
• Knowledge
• Personal qualities and attributes
• Resources
• Control over resources
• Relationships, networks and connections
• Formal connectivity
• Ability to articulate and to communicate
• Physical and moral strength
• Emotional power (to what degree is the emotional degree, sometimes it comes with experience, time etc)
• Time
• Appearance/presentation
• Mobility
• Perceptions (the way people perceive you can be a source of power)
Sometimes, our leadership can be questioned by others, and sometimes can impinge on our leadership.
This was followed by a presentation of the typology of power to demonstrate how we use and exercise power in relationships with others
• Power over: when you force another/others to do something
• Power to: enabling others to do something
• Power with: strength from collective action
• Power within: individual strength, confidence etc
3. Summary of Discussion
However, there is a manipulative inbuilt aspect into all these kinds of leaderships.
Leadership is related to power, and hence has a political agenda with an agenda.
Part of having power and using it is grounded on our sense of ego, e.g., the example of the husband and wife, whose wife's ideas are made to look like it was the man who had them, is an issue of egos.
For every action or exercise of power, there is going to be consequences, positive and negative and hence we need to be cognizant of this.
All these are described in words below:
• Connectivity
• Charisma
• Authoritative
• Assertive
• Uncompromising
Exercise
• Identify which type of power and its source most and least affected/effective
• Non-verbal demonstration
Day 5: 26th June, 2009
1. Leadership Skills
Using experiences is one way of ensuring points get home.
Questions arising: does it mean increasing the number of women give them power? Yes, increasing the number is very important, especially because men have had a better foundation, and the fact that there is power in numbers, although its not just the aspect of numbers only.
Feedback From the Facilitators
After considering all the visions given by the groups, the ultimate vision which also goes hand in hand with the WOCAN vision, the vision became:
Moral Vision: Alternative women leadership that shares power, authority and decision making that uses inclusive approaches for increasing equity and rights to make choices for the well-being of all.
• Mainstreaming frame is definitely alright, but it should be for women empowerment
• Communication
• Power exists within a frame especially because of our perceptions.
Exercise on Leadership Qualities
Story
The Crocodile Infested River: There was a couple who was engaged to get married. This couple lived on the opposite sides of the river. The man was called Obama and the lady was called Njeri. It rained heavily and the river was flooded, and infested by crocodiles. Njeri wanted to visit Obama, but she could not cross the river. So she went to a business man called Musyoka and Musyoka asked her to sleep with him to be ferried over the river. Njeri asked for advice from her mother, Mama Njeri and Mama Njeri refused to give her any solution but told her that she should decide on her own as an adult. So Njeri, being desperate to see Obama, decides to sleep with Musyoka and she is of course ferried to the other side of the river by Musyoka's boat. When she is with Obama on the other side of the river, she tells him what happened and what she had to go through to be able to cross the crocodile infested river, and Obama is very angry after hearing this, and he decides to throw her out. Disappointed, Njeri goes to the streets crying and her cousin Kamau, who got to hear of what had happened to Njeri, and he went to confront Obama, beating Obama thoroughly and hurting him.
Exercise
The groups were required to rank the actors/actresses based of the story above. Where by the lowest ranked actor/actress would score five (5), while the best scorer of the story got 1.
From the groups, the rankings were varied:
Group One
• Obama-5
• Njeri-2
• Mama Njeri - 1
• Musyoka - 3
• Kamau - 4
Group Two:
• Njeri - 1 (self giving, open)
• Mama Njeri - 2 (gave a chance for her daughter to make own decision without her influence)
• Musyoka- 3 (opportunist)
• Kamau - 4 (confrontational)
• Obama - 5
Group Three:
• Musyoka - 5 (manipulative, power over)
• Mama Njeri - 1 (good mother, gives child power to decide for herself)
• Njeri -2 (is an open person, cant live with guilt, and reveals her secret to Obama
• Obama - 3 (untrustworthy, coz he does not keep his promise to be with Njeri forever0
• Kamau - 4 (a fighting man to be protective to his cousin)
Group Four:
• Musyoka - 5 (exploitative)
• Kamau - 4 (confrontational)
• Mama Njeri - 3 (did not give Njeri all the choices and consequences she would have had)
• Obama - 2 (does not keep promises)
• Njeri - 1 (naïve, open, self giving, a victim of circumstance)
Lessons from the story
We all think differently and its based on where we come from. And this means that as leaders, we must be aware of this and when we are communicating we should be aware of the frames that are exist.
That there is a limit to how far we need to be open as leaders although it has its own boundaries too, where there are risks and responsibilities. (the case of the pilot who announced to the passengers that he could not control the plane and asked the passengers to pray, and the passengers all panicked, so then, the pilot should not have done that, but instead, he should have tried to control the plane and told the passengers to be calm).
Leadership is complex and all these issues occur in leadership and even more difficult for women leaders.
Johari's Window: It has four windows with four parts: as shown below:
1
The part you know about yourself
2
The part that others know about you
3
The part that you know yourself and others don't know about you
4
The part that both you and others do not know about you
All these parts are all within us as individuals
1. The part you know about yourself
2. What others know about you
3. What you know about yourself and others know about you
4. What both you and others don't know about you
A good leader should increase the window 3: what you know about yourself and others knowing about you, for better leadership that enhances people to know who you are as their leader, while one should reduce the other remaining 1, 2 and 4windows. To know what you don't know and increase them.
Key issues
Based on the cultural context, the JOHARI'S window may be complex....i.e. what is seen on the surface is never the reality. Some people consider open leaders as weak, and not really ‘ideal leaders', and they attribute this to naivety etc and openness is associated with lack of complexity.
In some cultures, its complex, but opening up is n