Feminist Leadership

Fresh Humanitarian Perspectives

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Feminist Leadership - a not-so-widely known or understood term.
What is Feminist Leadership?
What does it actually mean? Is its meaning simply implied in its name?
Listen to this insightful conversation led by Rachel O'Brien, Director of the Humanitarian Leadership Academy (HLA).
Rachel is joined by two mavens on this topic: Srilatha Batliwala, Feminist Activist and Archie Law, Principal Leadership Advisor at the HLA to break down and define Feminist Leadership - what does it mean in practice? Why is it important and necessary in the way we view leadership today? Importantly, how can we practice Feminist Leadership within the humanitarian sector and more importantly beyond the sector?
Srilatha says in the conversation: "Feminist Leadership is the process of transforming ourselves, organisations and movements to reflect the feminist vision and values of social justice we want to advance in the world". She says it is about "unleashing both our individual and collective power to work towards dismantling all the discriminatory structures of power and privilege in the world."

Archie shares his viewpoint on the role of men in Feminist Leadership. He says: "I do think that's something that men have an active role to play in: respecting the role of women and the feminist movement and working alongside the movement and working alongside our sisters."
About the Speakers
Srilatha Batliwala is a feminist activist, researcher, scholar and trainer based in India. For over two decades, her work focused on grassroots movement building with marginalized urban and rural women in India, as well as research and policy advocacy on gender equality and women’s rights. She then moved on to work internationally, at the Ford Foundation, Harvard University and AWID, doing grant-making, scholarly work, building theory from practice, and capacity building of young women activists around the world. She is best known for bridging the worlds of theory and practice, and for her writing on women’s empowerment, women’s movements and feminist leadership. She is currently Senior Advisor, Knowledge Building, CREA, as well as a Senior Associate with Gender at Work,. She considers herself a feminist grandmother – both in the women’s movement, and to her four teenage grandchildren!
Rachel O'Brien is Director of the HLA and is based in the UK. In her role she provides direct leadership to the HLA, the Save the Children UK Humanitarian Department, and to the wider Save the Children movement. Rachel is also a qualified coach, working with individuals and teams both inside and outside of the sector.
Archie Law AM is the Principal Leadership Advisor at the Humanitarian Leadership Academy. His previous appointments have included Director of International Programmes at Save the Children Australia, Executive Director of ActionAid Australia and global and regional humanitarian roles with the United Nations.

The views and opinions expressed in our podcast are those of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of their organisations

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The views and opinions expressed in our podcast are those of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of their organisations.