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Developing Experience, Networks, and Capacities: Leadership as Practiced in Feminist Human Rights Activism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 August 2014

Brooke A. Ackerly
Brooke A. Ackerly*
Affiliation:
Vanderbilt University
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Extract

This essay draws on insights from research into human rights activism to propose a feminist human rights account of leadership that could be applied to political science. I advance the view that the practice of leadership is one of building networks and strengthening the capacity of others to advocate for themselves and their communities. In this view, leadership leverages the political and strategic capacities made possible by relative positions of privilege and so transforms the networks, capacities, and privileges of others. Mentoring is an integral part of this activist approach to leadership. In this view, leadership and mentoring are about developing the networks that make transformation possible; they are collective and political. For illustration, I begin with insights about the importance of networks learned through a personal experience in Bangladesh and juxtapose that experience with the experience of Bangladeshi labor rights organizers before providing a more general account of two key aspects of this leadership: building networks and strengthening capacity in others.

Type
Critical Perspectives on Gender and Politics
Information
Politics & Gender , Volume 10 , Issue 3 , September 2014 , pp. 455 - 464
Copyright
Copyright © The Women and Politics Research Section of the American Political Science Association 2014 

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References

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