IWD 8 March - BAME Women and Leadership

 This is a contribution to discussion on International Women's Day 8 March 2021

In Black History Month 2017 I was invited by the organisers of activities at the Home Office Croydon base to give a history talk based on the theme of BAME Women and Leadership. 

I opened the talk saying:

‘As a man this is an interesting topic for me to consider.

The most destructive woman leader in my life time was Margaret Thatcher. Her view that there was no such thing as society was pernicious and underpinned the callous way in which heavy industry was destroyed with nothing to put in its place. The immense damage that did across Britain in terms of communities and particularly to families and individuals is a major part of the toxicity of our current economic, political and social crisis.

So just as with men there will be women who make ‘good’, ‘poor’ and ‘bad leaders’.

What do we mean by leadership? I have my own very clear personal view. You may have a different view.’

I then went on to explain that while ‘Preparing for today I came across a discussion about the views of Australian aboriginal women about leadership.

Concerning the specifics of community leadership, Aboriginal women hold a wide spectrum of views. This diversity is due to a 'complex interweaving of place, traditional roles and local religion … [and] changes in gender relations … consequent upon the time, degree and nature of [a community's] contact with non-Aboriginal society' (Gale 1990, 382).

Recurring observations include: 

1. Leaders are shaped by their family and community, culture and history, the example of other leaders and the responsibilities that come with maturity, as well as their personal experiences of discrimination, other ways of life, education, employment and difficult life circumstances.
2. Qualities for leadership are honesty, courage, compassion, perseverance, passion for their cause, resilience, confidence, assertiveness, a sense of humour, altruism in wanting to bring others up in life, and inspiration for others.
3. Their ways of working are based on Aboriginal terms of reference and include respect for elders, bringing community people together, speaking out and confronting issues, having a shared vision with an analysis and solution for problems, and the capacity to achieve a multitude of tasks.
4. Their motivations and goals are to be catalysts of change, working to alleviate community disadvantage in line with principles and practices of self-determination; to promote maintenance and recovery of culture and country; and to empower communities by reclaiming traditions of women's leadership and power in cooperation with Aboriginal men.
5. Women leaders are respected holders of knowledge who work to keep culture strong and encourage respect for cultural knowledge, and they take responsibility for transmitting this knowledge down the generations.
6. Women leaders face many challenges that can lead to burnout, such as the personal sacrifices in meeting the heavy demands of work and family, feelings of obligation to give back to others and be accountable to community expectations, and the tensions of divided loyalties and community divisions that may arise. Interacting with the non-Aboriginal sector, they can face conflicts of interest, different values and styles of leadership, demands of bureaucracy and the media, and dealing with sexism and discrimination.
7. In all their work, leaders find precious support in family, community and relationships of trust with other Aboriginal women.’

Is Leadership Relevant?

I then posed the question of whether the concept of leadership is relevant.

‘In one sense leadership is irrelevant. What is really important is the contribution that individuals make by example, through inspiration and collectively. The best leaders know how to value, nurture, encourage this to create add value: the outcome becomes larger than the sum of the parts.’

I illustrated this by talking about:

Emily Kame Kngwarreye

Born in 1910 she was a stockman and became a leading Indigenous Australian artist in her 80s. Before that she made art for private purposes drawing in the earth and painting people's bodies for rituals. She helped set up the Utopia Women's Batik Group in 1977. Once she had been recognised by the late 1980s she had 48 group exhibitions in a three-year period. She died in 1996.

If we look back in history we can see that women in Africa and in slave societies played a particularly important role due to religion and in relation to resistance to and revolt against slavery  Most never became recorded in history by name or as leaders.’

In addition there were women who resisted colonialism and imperialism in Africa and India. Throughout the talk I cited a number of women in the Africa, the Caribbean, Britain, the United States, and India listed below. In the talk I did give more biographical detail.

Women Cited In The Talk

Nanny of the Maroons of Jamaica (c. 1686 – c. 1755)

Muhumusa organised armed resistance against German colonialists and was detained by the British in Kampala from 1913 to her death in 1945.

Kittur Chennamma (1778-1829)  led an armed rebellion against the East India Company in 1824.

Rani Lakshmibai (1828 –1858) fought against the British during the Indian Uprising in 1857 and 1858.

‘Black’ Joan of Putney (17thC)

Sophia Campbell and Mary Alley, enslaved women who were baptised by John Wesley in Balham and founded Methodism in Antigua.

Phyllis Wheatley, the poetess who visited England from colonial America.

Mary Prince, the enslaved servant in London whose story was published.

Fanny Eaton (b. 1835) who modelled for artists like Dante Gabriel Rossetti.

Mary Seacole, the Jamaican nurse and entrepreneur.

Mattie Lawrence/Marion Thrift, a member of the Fisk Jubilee Singers who married a Croydon Grocer.

Jane Roberts, the wife of the first black President of independent Liberia.

Ida D Wells, the anti-lynching campaigner.

Avril,  the composer and conductor daughter of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor

Evelyn Dove (1902-1987),  the singer and actress,

Lilian Bader (1918-2015) who was a leading aircraftwoman in the War.

Olive Morris (1952-1979), the Brixton based campignerf for black rights

Margaret Busby (b.1944), the publisher.

Dr Shirley Thompson, the composer.

Sarojini Naidu, the "Nightingale of India." (1879 – 1949), poetess and first President of the Indian National Congress

Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit (1900 – 1990), twice President of the Indian National Congress, and  first woman President of the UN General Assembly.

Wangari Muta Maathai developed the Kenyan Green Belt Movement which works with women’s groups to plant trees to prevent soil erosion and provide firewood for cooking fires. She has been arrested many times for her pro-democracy activities.

Edmonia Lewis, the African/Native American sculptor, whose works included some inspired by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s The Song of Hiawatha.

Rosa Parks

Bessie Coleman (1892-1926), the first African American female pilot in the United States.

 Odetta Holmes (1930 – 2008), the singer and "The Voice of the Civil Rights Movement".