Ann Pettifor
Christianity magazine has an article this month on 'Life after Joel' as Joel Edwards leaves the Evangelical Alliance. It wonders who will take over from him, and although the article agrees that the post could potentially be held by a woman, it assumes, probably accurately, that Joel's succesor will be male.
The article suggests a list of attributes of the ideal candidate:
- The preaching ability of a Steve Gaukroger or a Steve Brady
- The theological nous of a David Hilbourne or an Elaine Storkey
- The broad appeal of a Hugh Osgood or a Rob Parsons
- The grasp of the younger generation of a Krish Kandiah or a Pete Greig
- The networking skills of a Lyndon Bowring or a Russ Rook
- The strategic focus of a Steve Chalke or a Terry Virgo.
Well hooray for Elaine, who is clearly the only woman in Christendom that is worth emulating; let's hope she's not still the only woman that people have heard of. But it made me wonder who are the women who have been left out of that list. Who are the women leaders, entrepreneurs and activists that have the qualities that any leader, male or female, of an organisation or business would be pleased to have? I came up with the following.
- The grit, determination and vision of Ann Pettifor, driving force behind Jubilee 2000 and now executive director of Advocacy International
- The leadership wisdom and experience of Jill Garrett, director of leadership development at Caret
- The networking ability of Ann Holt, OBE, director of programme for the Bible Society
- The grasp of the younger generation of Jill Rowe, Oasis community and church development director, or Rachel Gardner, creative director of Romance Academy
- The passion, preaching abiity and practice of Danielle Strickland, Salvation Army captain
- The creativity and diplomacy of Beki Bateson, director of Greenbelt
Who would you add?
One of the aims of Sophia is to increase the visibility of women in youth work, and I hope other areas of life and ministry. That's not about superficial things like profile or platform or, God forbid, fame - but about making people aware of the excellent work, the inspiring qualities, the amazing talents that Christian women are using in all areas of life so that lists like these never again lack readily available examples of women to aspire to and none of us are left hunting in the dark for role models. I think we should be talking about these women, learning their names and what they do, being inspired by them and following in their footsteps.
As I ponder on the names of
As I ponder on the names of people that I know that could join the list, it strikes me that there are loads! I know many women equally skilled, gifted and experienced as those very capable men. The reality is though, they’re never going to make it on to a list. Not because they’re not good enough, but rather because they’re not high profile enough.
Is this because women aren’t as good at networking? Are women perhaps not as interested in getting to know the ‘right’ people – the ‘listmakers’? My initial thought is that the women I admire and respect most are too busy getting on with their job to build these profile raising relationships. If this were the case (and I don’t know that it is because the men I know that have made it ‘in’ are equally hard-working), I don’t know if that’s a good thing or a bad thing!
Do we need to spend more time in the places where the ‘listmakers’ are? Do we need to work harder at raising our own profile, not just the profile of our work? This list frustrates me but I believe that Sophia is part of the answer to that frustration. The other part, I feel, relies a little more on us. Sophia will only work if women can be bold enough to admit to their skills, admit to holding expertise! We need to be confident enough to put ourselves forward and ask for an invite to the table. Future lists, and indeed the church, will be poorer if women aren’t represented.
wise words
I do think that some women are not so good at putting themselves forward, and lots of us doubt our abilities and can lack confidence. It's difficult because it feels wrong to me to be into self-promotion. I struggle with those who set up Joe Bloggs ministries which centres around just one person. But I do think that if we want to treated equally and we want lists like this to change, then we do need to get better about appropriately talking about our skills, experiences and achievements.
I also think that some men just have a blind spot when it comes to gender. They just don't notice that women are missing.
There's an interesting article in today's Guardian about Nicky Gavron who was Ken Livingstone's deputy while he was mayor and it talks about how she worked 'behind the scenes' while he got all the glory - and the criticism. It says: 'The story of the Livingstone-Gavron pact and their subsequent working relationship is the classic story of a traditional male-female dynamic in the workplace. "I gave him a set of policies right from the beginning. Ken sees the big picture; he seizes an idea and runs with it. He used to come into my room and say, 'Gimme another good idea, Nicky, I'll get all the credit.'" ' The full article is here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2008/aug/01/livingstone.boris
I'd also be interested to hear more about the capable women that you know Jo. I think we need to shout about each other! I also think it's useful to have some names up your sleeve for those occasions when people ask for suggestions of competent women. So please come back and add them in!
Jenny
more women to add
hi, i did comment about this a couple of days ago, but think my comment went to the bermuda triangle of the blogosphere :-)
i added
kate coleman - first black woman to be president of the BUGB (Baptist Union, GB)
maggi dawn - writer, musician, artist, blogger, creative, mother, amazing :-)
kate pearson - lawyer, works for nehemiah project birmingham
intentional networking
i think that it also seems to be the case that some men feel uncomfortable networking with women and because at the moment they are the ones who are in the more high profile positions, the cycle is perpetuated. even with those of us who like/are good at networking, sometimes there's a barrier to being 'friends' between the sexes.
i have felt a real lacking of female role models for my own leadership journey, and i have to say that i still feel like that, but here's a few:
maggi dawn - writer, musician, blogger, creative
kate coleman - first black woman president of baptist union, absolutely amazing preacher
kate pearson - lawyer working with nehemiah project in birmingham, warrior for justice
that'll have to do for now....
(by the way, i did come here because i was following jenny's stuff, having read a blogpost on jonny's site, so i could put you on the list, but that might seem a bit sucky :-)
thanks Jody
Great suggestions. They didn't appear immediately because for some reason I have to validate comments from non-members and I haven't checked that for a few days - sorry about that!
Jenny