Written by: gfesadmin on October 20, 2012

“After seeing you in ministry and leadership it seems to me that women leaders are fairly well accepted in India”, remarked a friend of mine here in the U.S. There is some truth to that generalization.   Like the West, the India too has dynamic women at the helm of leadership in politics, government, business, and the non-profit world, the church and in many other sectors.  However, this “presence of a few highly regarded women at the top creates the illusion that the glass ceiling has been shattered for everyone else” (location 4802, Nohria and Khurana 2010).  This is a far cry from reality for many. So one might immediately pose the question about actual plight of the majority?

The question is best answered with a peek into the status of Indian women in general. Over a quarter of the Indian population are women and girls living in the rural parts of the country.    Opportunities for education, health care, nutrition and employment are scarce and restricted primarily because of their gender. Female infanticide, dowry deaths, domestic violence and other crimes against women are widely prevalent in India because of biased socio-cultural norms and structures that justify the crimes and hence often do not surface. Considering even just these few facts, it is obvious then that women rank the lowest on the social ladder facing all kinds of injustices.  They are still considered lesser citizens.    These facts then further lead to the next logical question: Is there any hope for change and can these women rise to any kind of leadership?

The answer is an affirmative ‘yes’.  The struggle and social ‘stigma’ of being a woman is a “crucible” for development.   In fact the oppression of social and cultural structures has placed them on the threshold of “developmental readiness” (location 8232, Nohria and Khurana 2010) as they seek out change to redefine their mind maps of who they are and who they want to be perceived as.    In the recent years, this has led to the growth and development of large number of women leaders at the grass roots.   

My experience with Pappa and many others is an example of this change and development that is taking place.   “I did not know that I could have a better life or I could do anything outside my house”, said Pappa, a leader of one of IGL’s Women’s Transformation Groups at Vattakadu, in Southern India when I met her during my visit to her village. She continued to share enthusiastically that where once she would have been afraid to venture out of her house she now takes a bus and travels to the bank in the neighboring town.  Pappa is a wife and mother of two children.   But she sees herself to be much more than that now.   She believes she is a leader with a strong voice in the community speaking against atrocities against women and leading other women to defend their rights. Under her leadership and direction the Women’s Transformation Group is addressing other socio-economic challenges and creating a transformation in the village.  

This, however, was not the case when we began the community outreach efforts in this village. As mentioned earlier, women had no place or voice in the community.   They were relegated to stereotypical roles pertaining to raising children and keeping their home.   Having little education and no skills, they were left to survive at the mercy of their alcoholic husbands who repeatedly abused them.   Moreover, these victims of domestic violence did not receive any kind of support from the ‘leaders’ in the village who also held the notion that women were lesser citizens.  What was worse was that these women had a handicapped view of themselves. 

However, in the last five years, through IGL’s development initiatives in the Vattakadu, women like Pappa have risen to be dynamic leaders despite the oppressive structures and traditions that restricted them.  They have broken free from being victims of abuse and violence incapable of effecting change to establishing a new identity as change agents and a powerful force that men now have to reckon with.  

Certainly this process of transformation is not without its challenges. In the Handbook of Leadership Theory and Practice the authors outline barriers, both structural and attitudinal, that women encounter as leaders. As ‘women leaders’ they have to battle with the misconceptions of being viewed as overtly masculine and disliked though competent or docile and disadvantaged needing support and incapable of leading.  However, given the fact that there is a growing number of grass roots level women leaders, the next obvious question at this point is: how do women like Pappa overcome these barriers and chart a course towards becoming leaders?

A general and secular response to this question is to empower women with skills and training in hopes that women will derive a sense of worth and build confidence to overcome the barriers.  However, “leadership development programs that focus on developing skills and abilities while ignoring basic psychosocial development levels and processes are likely to be ineffective in achieving the desired results.” (location 8240, Nohria and Khurana 2010).   Moreover, these measures may not address the issues for the long term and certainly do not empower women wholistically to be change agents in the community bringing transformation. 

In my experience, a key factor that unlocks the door to becoming a leader, particularly in this case of rural women, is a repairing of the impaired self/identity. The identity – based leader development model stated in the Handbook of Leadership Theory and Practice posits that, “leader development unfolds as an identity transition in which people disengage from central, behaviorally anchored identities while exploring new possible selves and, eventually integrate a new alternative identity”. My belief and experience is that, this identity transition takes place when the women respond to the Gospel message and find their primary identity in Christ.  Their worldview shifts dramatically and they begin to disengage with their previously handicapped views of themselves imposed by the social structure and culture.   The understanding that they are valued and gifted is a realization for the first time.  This has a profound effect on their spiritual, emotional and social and psychological self. 

I believe this restoration of the ‘image of God’ in a women, redefining their identity not only transforms a woman toward becoming a leader, in these rural areas, at a personal level but also empowers her to lead and be an effective change agent in her village.  It is this new identity that gives them lasting confidence to venture out and lead despite the “double standard” and “double bind” barriers that once undermined their respect and intimidated them.

The barriers are negotiated for “learning goals” to break through the structure, for example, in order to create an “ecosystem of motivation” that “assess the self as part of a larger whole, a system in which individual actions have consequences for others and repercussions for the system as a whole” (location 4939, Nohria and Khurana 2010).  And in doing so, since “women tend to engage in different social relations and economic activities from men and bring different experiences and perspectives” (Nohria and Khurana 2010) the community benefits significantly from their change.

Khurana, Nitin Nohria and Rakesh. Handbook of Leadership Theory and Practice. Boston , MA: Harvard Business School Publishing Company, 2010.

About the Author

gfesadmin