Book Theme: Female Leadership
This blog entry touches on a tangential topic to an aspect of my upcoming debut science fiction novel. In the book, I incorporated female characters in various leadership roles, but I didn't portray them as token gestures. Instead, I tried to put them in situations where they experience successes and failures that reflect more realistic scenarios. The angle that I am addressing here is examining how the impact of particularly great female leaders is vastly underappreciated and overlooked by the annals of history. Various factors come into play concerning this phenomenon.
Sexism is the most prominent contributor to historically great women leadership being overlooked and underappreciated. More specifically, history is mainly written from a dominant male-centric point of view. With such an approach to recording history, it is expected that most historical figures and events outside of that sphere of focus become highly susceptible to being minimized, mischaracterized, or ignored, with relatively few exceptions. It may not necessarily be done on purpose by any individuals. More than anything, it is a systemic flaw that places a higher value on men's noble or heroic accomplishments over those of women much more often than not. This can often be the case even among many female historians. But you may ask," how does systemic sexism play out in real-world scenarios that deny proper recognition for noteworthy female leaders in the history books?" To understand this phenomenon, one should be familiar with the concept of leadership being erroneously perceived as a purely masculine trait. Granted, both men and women can exhibit masculine and feminine characteristics. However, when people think of leadership qualities, they typically think of assertive, strong, level-headed, brave, unemotional, etc. Due to systemic sexism, such adjectives are primarily associated with men. As a result, it is much more mainstream for leadership roles to be cast upon male historical figures who fit the profile as opposed to women who exhibit the same qualities during comparable times of great adversity.
To piggyback off of the proceeding paragraph, feminine qualities are often undervalued. As a result, when these qualities are attributed to female leaders, they are perceived as softer or less worthy of the bigger spotlight that many of their male counterparts may receive from historians. Often, when historical female leaders are brought up, plenty of masculine qualities are mentioned to bolster their standing as credible leaders. There is nothing inherently wrong with that. However, it is noticeable how the characteristics most associated with females, feminine qualities, are given second billing when describing great leaders. That is typically the case for both male and female leaders. One of the primary characteristics used to describe them is compassion. I think empathy is an excellent and crucial quality for a leader, male or female. One reason is that it better enables a leader to understand and identify with their followers mentally and emotionally than leaders who cannot or will not exhibit that quality. Another (and possibly more crucial) reason is that compassion allows a leader to understand the motivations of and perhaps identify with the opposition. Any quality that helps you keep your more base instincts in check while providing you with an advantage in better anticipating the potential strategies of your opponent is always a huge asset. Yet compassion gives most people the first impression of going in the opposite direction of strength, assertiveness, and a host of other celebrated masculine qualities. Unfortunately, that first impression is a hurdle many people do not get past. I say all of that to point out how when mischaracterized feminine attributes are attributed to historically great female leaders and are coupled with the systemic sexism I mentioned earlier, a clearer picture of the apparent bias develops.
Now comes the part where I do my part to highlight a few great female leaders in history who are woefully under-celebrated.
The first is Queen Amina of Zaria who was also known as the Warrior Queen. Amina was born within a male-dominated pre-colonial Nigerian society. Yet, her ascension to the throne did not meet much opposition based on her gender[1]. Although this society (the city-state of Zazzau) had clearly defined roles for both genders, women were allowed to take on leadership roles if they proved worthy[2]. Before her reign, Amina had gained the reputation for being a fierce warrior among the Zazzau military. This helped solidify her bid as the next ruler after her brother's death ended his ten-year rule. Her reign was from 1576 until she died in 1610[3]. Under her leadership, Zazzau expanded its control of the central trading post connecting Saharan Africa with much of sub-Sahara Africa. She was also able to grow the Zaria territory and protect Zazzau with innovative fortification around the city-state that had never been successfully developed before. Such fortifications were used in various city-states throughout the Zaria territory. However, the negative aspect of her rule was that she led her empire into constant war with its neighboring regions en route to making Zaria larger than it had ever been before[4].
Next is Anasuya Sarabhai, India's first trade union leader. Despite being born in a privileged family, Anasuya worked tirelessly for the rights of India's less fortunate. The turning point came in 1913 when she saw firsthand the effects of the inhumane working conditions and exploitation imposed upon many lower caste mill workers in her home city, Ahmedabad[5]. As she learned more of these terrible working conditions, she became determined to help organize the mill workers to increase their bargaining power for better conditions. In 1918, Anasuya helped lead a peaceful strike which successfully garnered a 35% wage increase for these local mill workers[6]. From there, Anasuya founded the Majoor Mahajan Sangh (Ahmedabad Textile Labour Association or TLA) in 1920, which grew over the following decades to represent hundreds of thousands of textile workers[7].
Lastly, I want to acknowledge the late, great Nellie Stone Johnson. Nellie became a fearless labor organizer and activist when she was a teenager[8]. In 1924, she was hired as an elevator attendant at the all-male Minneapolis Athletic Club, earning $15 per week. After her wages were cut to $12.50, she quietly organized workers with the Minneapolis Hotel and Restaurant Workers Union[9]. In 1936, she became a member and vice president of the local American Federation of Labor union for hotel and restaurant workers[10]. During this period. Nellie became an associate with future U.S. Vice President Hubert Humphrey, with whom she worked on civil rights issues[11]. In 1944, she helped found the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, which unified the Minnesota Democratic Party with the Farmer-Labor Party[12]. This was a significant undertaking as it ushered in an era in Minnesota politics that is still present today. Among Nellie’s other accomplishments, she led in creating the state and local Fair Employment Practices departments, which later became the Minneapolis Civil Rights Commission and the state Human Rights Department[13]. She also helped create the Minneapolis Fair Employment Practices department, the first of its kind in the nation[14]. In 1955, she led the initiative to develop a statewide version of the Minneapolis legislation, the Employment Practices Act of 1955[15].
CITATIONS
”Queen Amina of Zaria". African Feminist Forum, 25 Mar. 2016, http://www.africanfeministforum.com/queen-amina-of-zaria-nigeria/
Ibid.
Ibid.
Ibid.
”What Made Anasuya Sarabhai, a Woman Born to Privilege, Become India's First Woman Trade Union Leader?” The Better India, 27 Oct. 2016, https://www.thebetterindia.com/73140/anasuya-sarabhai-labour-movement-ahmedabad/
Ibid.
Ibid.
”Nellie Stone Johnson.” Minnesota Historical Society, https://www.mnhs.org/votesforwomen/nellie-stone-johnson.
Perry, Steve (May 29, 1991). "The Good Fight: Nellie Stone Johnson's 70 years in Minnesota politics". City Pages.
Mengelkoch, Louise (May 27, 1986). "'I lead a pretty ordinary life' – Nellie Stone Johnson". Minnesota Women's Press.
Ibid.
Delton, Jennifer A. (2002). Making Minnesota Liberal: Civil Rights and the Transformation of the Democratic Party. Minneapolis, Minn. [u.a.]: Univ. of Minnesota Press. p. 77.
Perry, Steve (May 29, 1991). "The Good Fight: Nellie Stone Johnson's 70 years in Minnesota politics". City Pages.
Bauerlein, Monika (April 10, 2002). “Nellie Stone Johnson: 1905-2002”. City Pages.
Chandler, Kurt (November 11, 1988). "The durable radical". Star Tribune.