Special Edition: Best of Women’s Leadership Conversations

The month of March is Women’s History Month, so we’re taking a look back in our archives and sharing some of our “best of” women’s leadership conversations.  

 Our featured guests in this episode include: Dr. Sameera Hussain, Adjunct Professor at the University of Ottawa's School of Epidemiology and Public Health; Everjoice Win, an activist in feminist and social justice movements in Zimbabwe and the African continent; Cindy Clark, the Co-Executive Director of the Association for Women's Rights in Development; Marigold Mioc, a young activist for women and girls' rights and leadership; and Andrea Gunraj, Vice President of Public Engagement with the Canadian Women's Foundation.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Hello, and welcome to 15 minutes to change the world. We're in 15 minutes or less, you'll learn a bit more about the world and how you can help change it for the better. My name is laun and I'm the host of this podcast. The month of March is women's history month. So we're taking a look back in our archives and sharing some of our best of women's leadership conversations. Sit back and get ready to be inspired. We've been very fortunate to have so many fierce and inspiring women on our podcast, sharing their passion insights and they work. They do for incredible causes and organizations. First we'll hear from Dr. Samira Husain adjunct professor at the university of Ottawa's school of epidemiology and public health. Here's what Dr. Husain had to say about women who are leading in global healthcare when, when women are involved in leadership and, and the decision making process in public health, what kinda difference does that make for society?

Speaker 2: 1:05

It does make a very big difference in society. Uh, the research certainly indicates that, um, when you have at all levels of, um, of healthcare and public health, when you have women and women who reflect the diversity of the population that they serve, they bring to that decision making role, a different kind of perspective that does affect their decision making, which in turn plays out at the population and public health level. And as for, um, women making decisions, um, there are, uh, nuanced experiences that women have. Um, we, we have setbacks due to gender due to rates due to socioeconomic status. And organizational culture will have to change in order to accommodate that. Um, and, and ways that they can do that are not just directing women to, um, websites, evidence suggests that financial support care for B needs for women, giving them manageable workloads and access to leisure activities, all create a positive impact on how they're able to perform in their healthcare and public health, uh, leadership roles.

Speaker 1: 2:17

Next up is the incredibly inspiring an activist in feminist and social justice movements in her country, Zimbabwe the African continent and globally for over 30 years ever. Joyce speaks passionately about decolonizing aid and localization in the context of international development and humanitarian work. She also talks about the importance of women's representation in this work and why we need to invest in women's leadership to ensure success for all.

Speaker 3: 2:45

So decolonizing aid really is about acknowledging that the roots of development work, as we know each today come from or are rooted in colonialism. It is also about the way in which development has tended to be done. IE, you know, resources, uh, knowledge, um, so-called capacity has often been seen as one directional, right? IE, it comes from the north going to the south. So, um, so, you know, roughly speaking, that's why we are now talking of, in terms of saying, we need to change that picture. It's not as one directional as it appears to be. Cause local people, particularly women and their organizations know best what their situation is, what their problems are. And they should be the ones in the driving seat say, these are the solutions that we want. These are the resources that we need. And these are the spaces where we need to go and influence change, whether it's a national level or a global level. Um, it also means changing the faces of those who are in leadership, right. Of, of development organizations. So very often, um, if you look at the humanitarian sector, for example, you hardly see any women let alone any women of color, right? So we are saying as part of decolonization and localization, it's about acknowledging the agency, the rights, the needs of those who are directly impacted by problems. It's, it has to be informed and led by those whose lived experience we are talking about. And they're the ones who should make the decisions, influence the decisions. And they should be the ones, you know, in the driving seat, as much as a lot of the money comes from the global north. But we are saying decisions about how that money gets used, how it gets allocated, what are the priorities that are decided, uh, what are the programs that are implemented, whose knowledge is acknowledged and used that work is being done by local people, local women and their organizations. So that's what we are really talking about to say, honoring acknowledging, valuing the work, the perspective and the leadership of those who are directly affected.

Speaker 1: 5:07

Cindy Clark is the co-executive director of the association for women's rights and development, a global feminist membership movement support organization, working to achieve gender justice. And women's human rights worldwide in this clip. Cindy talks about what feminism means to her, what feminist movements do and why they're beneficial for everyone. Cindy there's, there's a lot of discussion, particularly online and online forums about the word feminist and, and what it means, and perhaps a lot of misconception. So I'm wondering, can you explain what feminist and feminism means to you, you and what feminist movements are in the context of your work?

Speaker 4: 5:46

I mean, feminism or being a feminist to me means being part of a political project that centers gender equality, and kind of fighting the power structures that oppress, um, women and, uh, trans and gender non-binary people. But I think, um, feminism is also about transforming all kinds of oppressive power relations, whether those are marginalizing people based on race or class or ethnicity or ability, I mean, all of these intersections. Um, so I, I see feminist movements as critical to, um, fighting for everyone to be able to enjoy the full range of human rights, to be able to live lives with dignity free from violence, enjoying bodily autonomy, living in harmony with a natural world. Um, and I think from the perspective of a would, when we talk about feminist movements, we know that many people may not self divine in that way. In some context, using the label feminist, isn't helpful. Um, as much as we can look at that work and think that it is deeply transformative and, and feminist. So really when we, um, speak about feminist movements and organizations, we're talking about groups that are led by the people who are, um, did by the problems they're trying to address. And, and I think that's really important.

Speaker 1: 7:23

The next voice you'll hear belongs to mayor GOLDOC, who advocates strongly for girls leadership, empowerment, mayor gold is an activist and volunteer for a variety of causes and organizations, including the United way, young Canadians, parliament, and engineers without borders. Here's what Mary gold had to say about why girls voices need to be heard and why they need a seat at the decision making table.

Speaker 5: 7:47

I think that we need to encourage girls include them in decision making, encourage them to make a change and offer them opportunities and treat them equally.

Speaker 1: 7:59

All right. Marygold what would you say to adults or to those who have the power to make important decisions, maybe like a politician, someone who might be thinking, you know what, it's not important to invest in the leadership of girls. We have other issues to worry about right now.

Speaker 5: 8:16

It is important to invest in empowering young women and girls, because when you empower young women and girls, they can become leaders and find the solutions to those problems. Women and guys both have ideas and they can both find solutions to problems. So if we empower girls enough so that they become leaders too, we can all work together and find solutions to the problem that we need to work on. I know that a lot of people who are younger and, um, nowadays it's changing for gender equality. Um, I think that if we have a view of more youth voices and opinions that will help

Speaker 6: 8:54

With gender equality as well,

Speaker 1: 8:57

Our next featured guest is Andrea. Gora the vice president of public engagement with the Canadian women's foundation, a national leader in the movement for gender equality in Canada, working to achieve systemic change. Andrea spoke with us about violence against women and girls and the viral campaign. She helped create signal for help, a simple, yet powerful tool that gives people experiencing violence, a way to silently let others know they need help. Here's what Andrea had to say about investing in the leadership of women, girls and non-binary people and how this investment and empowerment can help to prevent or reduce gender based violence.

Speaker 6: 9:35

Well, we know that leadership matters in the sense that when people are leading, who have an experience, they tend to proactively respond to that experience. And we know that women girls and non-binary to spirit trans people, they experience gender based violence at really high rates. And many times it might be invisible to other people. Men not recognize it because they don't actually experience it directly. So in that kinda Broadway, when more women and trans disparate non-binary people are in leadership positions, we know that things happen in unexpected ways, in nontraditional ways. And that's our great thing, especially when you're trying to break a status quo. But I think as well too, that leadership of women and girls and non-binary people is so important because I think that there is so much research out there that shows that diversity in leadership positions makes workplace better and makes your workplace address policies and practices that are traditionally underdressed. It's partially the cause they experience these things, but it's also also partially because of skillsets. Um, or, you know, we know that people who are in leadership positions who are women and trans topi non-binary people, they tend to be very, um, open to collaboration, open to changing policies and practices. They like to, um, lead diverse inclusion and equity and justice initiatives. They tend to take those on far more. And I think that that's only going to deepen as we open up those tables. So I think it's, it's just good practice. And it's something that we do need to see more of. Um, and I, I do worry in the pandemic is gonna be very difficult because we know that, uh, 30 years of gender equality gains, especially when it comes to the labor market has been impacted. So all the more why we have to kinda pursue gender justice in a bigger way to make sure that those gains don't get lost fully, or at least can be regained.

Speaker 1: 11:36

And that wraps things up for us here today. We're grateful to all of our guests that we featured here today for sharing their thoughts and experiences with us and for inspiring us to be the change that we wanna see in the world when we invest in women anywhere it's clear, amazing things happen everywhere. And thank you to all of you for tuning in. You can find every episode of 15 minutes to change the world on Spotify, apple podcasts, and at kara.ca/podcasts.