On Mon, Dec 26, 2011 at 12:20 PM, Ms. Anne Frazer <frazera@bigpond.com> 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?