Women in Leadership Series

Workshop Series, Women in Leadership

While women have been able to move from the classroom to leadership in many cultural contexts, they remain underrepresented in educational leadership in most regions today. Where we do find women in educational leadership, the challenges often do have gender at their core, particularly in regions where male dominance or “machismo” is the norm. Too often, women feel the need to lead in more “masculine” ways in order to succeed, a pattern we have seen played out by women in business, politics, and many other male-dominated fields across myriad cultures. What might it look like to lead from inside our female-ness, whatever that might mean for each of us? And how might coming together around these challenges empower and equip us to better weather the storms?

This short course will explore the challenges for women in leadership roles in schools in the Americas. With the goal of understanding those challenges, exploring solutions, and identifying the gifts we bring to our roles, the course will provide a space for female leaders to collaborate, to learn together, and to provide each other with mutual support, all of which will serve to empower female leaders in AMISA schools.

The series will be designed for women in any leadership role, both inward- and outward-facing, and for women considering a move toward leadership. While this short course will not require a formal deliverable, participants will be encouraged to develop an initial draft of a “personal manifesto / mission statement” which defines their leadership vision and approach. Over the course of three weeks, with one 90-minute session per week, this class will explore the

following topics:

OCT. 11 | Session One: Where We Come From

• How were we raised to see our gender? How did peers and adults respond to our demonstrations of leadership at different ages and in varied cultural contexts?

OCT. 18 | Session Two: Where We Are Now

• What does science tell us are some of the core differences between the masculine and feminine brain? How do these differences actually play out in our work in Latin America, with students, teachers, other administrators and/or parents?

OCT. 25 | Session Three: Where We Are Going?

• How might gender play a role (or not) in our leadership approaches, moving forward? What are our unique strengths, and where do we see opportunities for growth? What do we need to know in order to be increasingly successful as female leaders in the Americas?