International Women’s Day 2022: Reclaiming Perceptions of the Female Leader
A blog from Lindsay Fyffe-Jardine, CEO, Edinburgh Dog and Cat Home and Women Leaders Network Champion.
This year’s International Women’s Day focuses on the issue of bias, the need to break this perpetuating problem whether it be about discrimination or damaging stereotypes. Women across the world on a daily basis have to fight within a system designed against them, whether its car seatbelts tested on male size dummies only, patriarchal systems that don’t favour or foster the female voice or the constant threat of violence and abuse.
This blog will focus on the space that women leaders find themselves fighting within to push the issue of bias, the conscious and unconscious, that can be found in so many aspects in how a woman may approach a situation or look to take charge. Aggressive words to describe her character used to belittle the difficult decisions that she has to make; with those same actions made by a male counterpart accepted as tough but fair.
It strikes me as interesting quite how much narrative has been created by the emerging, albeit few, international female figures in positions of leadership and how they have approached their roles. There’s a movement of understanding that we need to reclaim the influence we have as a woman. But that reclaiming doesn’t just mean how we look to shape the perceptions of those around us but to also influence ourselves from within and how we respond to a difficult situation. It’s the acceptance of our own validity and truth that is such an essential prerequisite to reclaim the leadership space that is so often male dominated.
The moment that Kamala Harris executed the now famous line ‘Excuse me, I’m speaking” opened up discussions around the power in reclaiming the point, projecting our own confidence and ownership into a difficult situation. There are now guides online for women wanting to emulate that Kamala moment in their own daily leadership. This was outstanding to see but also something that frustrates me because of the very fact that we need it still.
How many times have you thought to step forward and lend your voice but didn’t? Was it someone like Mike Pence who made you doubt yourself? Was it you getting in your own way because you don’t yet believe you have had enough credibility or that those in the room don’t want to hear what you have to say? What the likes of Kamala and Jacinda Ardern have done, is created recognition that you can bring who you are as a woman into your leadership role. You don’t need to mimic the traits you have seen in others to be heard. As another strong female leader Malala Yousafzai says, "I raise up my voice – not so I can shout, but so those without a voice can be heard… we cannot succeed when half of us are held back."
In the voluntary sector when so much of what we do as leaders is fight for others and look to speak on behalf of those who can’t, that quiet roar doesn’t mean you are lesser, it means you are bringing your full self into what you hope to achieve. Equally sometimes some situations require the largest roar that you can muster. Female leadership support and connection across the voluntary sector is so important for this reason. It helps to stoke the fire in your belly that you need to work for a cause-based organisation. Without that support it can either chew you up or burn you out.
For me breaking the bias within the female leadership space is about looking back and lifting others up. It is calling out doubt and the conscious and unconscious bias in both others and in ourselves when we see someone’s voice isn’t being heard or they are being diminished in the point made. There is power in your female perspective, so reclaim that space and power and own it. Kamala style.
