Women and Power

Very honoured to be part of the Plenary Session at the International Leadership Association (ILA)’s biennial Women and Leadership conference, in New York, with Susan R. Madsen (Orin R. Woodbury Professor of Leadership and Ethics, Woodbury School of Business, Utah Valley University), Tuajuanda C. Jordan (President, St. Mary’s College of Maryland), Barbara Kellerman (Center for Public Leadership, Harvard Kennedy School) and Betsy Myers (Founding Director, Center for Women and Business, Bentley University).

How can we, as global women leaders, manoeuvre through complex layers of culture, history, identity, context, and resources to exercise our power?

Leading requires balancing both the challenges and the opportunities to capitalize on our individual and collective power. Our diverse international panel explored power and influence in politics, education, business, nonprofits, and communities; the importance of role models using power effectively; The gender differences in attitudes about power; the tensions between social constructed identities and the biology; The “double-bind” most women leaders still face; The systemic and organizational factors that affect women’s ability to gain power and access leadership roles & the practices emerging in different countries; and discussed the current world context and how current trends are affecting women in different manners: regression versus opportunities, threats versus empowerment, setbacks versus mobilisation.

Thanks to great ILA team, to WLAG’s Chair Lynn Schollen, to legendary Susan Madsen and the inspirational panelists, and the support of ILA’s fantastic public. I definitely felt part of that global community of change-makers. TBC…

PS: The Women and Leadership conference, sponsored by ILA’s Women and Leadership Affinity Group (WLAG) provides a critical forum for bringing together top scholars, leaders, and practitioners to discuss the latest research and work about women and leadership.

The Women and Leadership conference nourishes and develops female leadership in a supportive community with the goal of enhancing women’s leadership status worldwide. WLAG is the largest affinity group in the International Leadership Association with over 1000 WLAG community members. WLAG is active throughout the ILA. The biennial Women and Leadership conferences are uniquely designed to support the development of hundreds of successful, professional women.