On Mon, Dec 26, 2011 at 12:20 PM, Ms. Anne Frazer <frazera(a)bigpond.com>wrote;wrote:
**
Laura, the entirety of your email is spot on list and I just want to thank
you for your clarity on this matter and for demonstrating what this list
could really be discussing. By focusing on supporting women in, and into,
leadership positions we recognise the exponential potential for greater
numbers of women to be involved, to be active, in the global movement -
and when encouraging female participation we can learn to realise we don't
need to tell them what to do, what to edit, but simply help open up the
pathways to everything.
Thank you for the kind words. :) And yes, supporting women in leadership
is extremely important. They will bring other women with them. They have
unique networks that we might not be able to reach otherwise. They often
understand local cultures better, or know people who can do things.
I'm simply explaining that which I know about at
the same time realising
the limitations of my knowledge. The significance to Wikimedia of this type
of women's model for organising, is that it focuses it's efforts on not
only increasing female participation but on training them into positions of
leadership; that is, training females on what, and how, and
about, all aspects of the movement. When a female has the knowledge they
can do.
Opportunities for leadership are probably a great motivational tool to get
women involved, especially if they have a built in support structure to
help them with their activities. I don't know if such a structure
currently exists now on a wider level, or if it is dependent on chapters to
do good work and be inclusive and for leaders in individual chapters to
make sure that women make connections to allow them to lead. I suspect
what happens now is we try to recruit people, get a few women who are self
motivated and they are left to fend for themselves in terms of developing
these networks to help them. And these networks are fundamental to
success. Why do feel like I've been so successful with my GLAM work?
Because I had a few existing GLAM people who were tremendously supportive
of me. Why have I felt so successful recently inside my chapter? Because
there are women I can turn to and ask for help. Can I and do I get this
same support from men? Yes, and I'm grateful to them. I love working with
them… (Australia has had a number of men work on our perspective page.
Fantastic and I love it!) but I feel like there is something special about
working with other women. Providing a support network, going out and
developing our female leaders, encouraging them to be involved is key to
not just fixing the gender gap but to increasing participation over all
around the globe. If we're looking for a solution, I think this is the
first one we should be looking at: How do provide support to women in a
global context to support their already good work? How do we find and
nurture additional female leaders?
--
twitter: purplepopple
blog:
ozziesport.com