023. What's a feminist leader to do about social power in organizations: Srilatha Batliwala

Summary

What is social power? And how does this concept relate to Feminist Leadership? And how does it show up in organizational dynamics within civil society organizations (CSOs)?

Are there any cross-cultural aspects to Feminist Leadership?

I discussed these topics during an interview with Srilatha Batliwala, senior advisor at CREA and Gender at Work, a well-known social movement 'pracademic' and activist, and author of peer-reviewed articles about INGOs.

Srilatha Batliwala's bio

• Senior advisor, Knowledge Building and Feminist Leadership, CREA (a feminist human rights organization founded in India) & Gender at Work
• Former co-chair, Board, Just Associates
• Former co-chair, Board, Gender at Work
• Member, International. Advisory Board for the Institute for Human Rights and Business
• Civil Society Research Fellow, Hauser Center, Harvard

Quotes

“If I say another world is possible, I have to make it true within my organization as well”

“We have to go for power structures that disrupt”

“Besides focusing on visible forms of power and decision making, as seen in public institutions, we have to also focus on the power within the self, how we think about self and what we can see as being possible, as being within our agency”

“In order to maneuver around deep power structures within organizations, we first have to bring them to the surface”

We discussed: 

• How we should analyze power and how it works in society and in organizations
• The limitations of feminist leadership across a range of organizations
• What are the political strategies and tactics that a feminist leader can use to analyze the presence of ‘deep structures’ in an organization
• What can a feminist leader practically do to change these power structures?

 Srilatha is the author of 'Engaging with Empowerment’ which is available at several online booksellers, including this one.

Resources:

Website: creaworld.org, researchgate.net, academia.edu

Srilatha’s LinkedIn profile

Srilatha’s Wikipedia link

Srilatha’s Twitter handle
 
 

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