Namita Mishra learnt how to ride a motorbike to prove to the men in her community that she was worthy of their respect and attention. Last year, in a 4 Returns community event, Namita shared insights into her work at the Foundation of Ecological security in India, where she’s finding ways to involve local women in land stewardship. Facing the constraints of a patriarchal society, Namita has had to display skills that are considered exclusively masculine to prove that women have what it takes to be leaders.
Why is it so crucial that women are leading landscape restoration?
- Women are already managing roughly 80% of the land and processes related to producing food for the family and community, including farming, gathering food from forests and bringing water in their home.
- However, women have little to no property rights or decision-making power over their land. They do a lot of the work but are systematically barred from making decisions about how to invest further in the land and innovate land management.
- Several studies have suggested that women tend to prefer a diversity of crops for nutrition and medicinal use, while men are more likely to prioritise profit when it comes to selecting crops – such as this case study and this recently published research.
- Some research suggests they have a holistic understanding of the context and, therefore, a more holistic approach to managing resources in their family, landscape, and community.
Many of these insights are true for communities all over the world facing land degradation and high poverty rates. We are in desperate need of a holistic approach to restoration and gender equality is a crucial element of that.
It is increasingly clear – via experience and research – that putting women in positions of power helps to spread and scale landscape restoration because of their tacit knowledge, value-based decision-making, and holistic relational approach. And the environmental and sustainability side of things is just one side of the story.
To change the “system”, we must challenge gender norms
Namita had to “man up” – learning to ride a motorbike – to even enter a conversation with men, an approach many women take to earn respect and gain power in our patriarchal world. I’ve done it myself, so many times: when I was young, I would ignore my creativity for the sake of looking “strong”. As I got older, I altered how I dressed at work, convinced that if I wanted to be perceived as smart, I needed to suppress my femininity.
As empowered women, we sometimes commit so much to proving to the world that “we are just as good as men” that we subscribe to the stereotypes of masculine leadership: show no emotion, demonstrate strength at all times, be results-oriented and authoritative.
We often forget the roots of femininity that, for many of us, are our “true nature”. We let these qualities go for the sake of power. Sadly, many female leaders have succeeded due to their masculine qualities; as a result, they offer no alternative to the kind of leadership we experience in the world, so society keeps believing that leadership must be masculine.
Women adapting themselves to be masculine leaders is not liberating; it is conforming to the system we’re part of. At the end of last year’s event, where Namita spoke, a reality check was provided by a woman in her early 80s. She reminded us that the grim reality we face, on a global scale, is that sooner than we might expect, our world and lifestyle may have to transform into survival mode. Ecosystem and, in turn, societal, collapse, war, or – who knows – another pandemic, may force us to dismantle the systems we currently depend upon and rebuild them into something new.
Feminine leadership is urgent and necessary
Now, more than ever, we need a holistic, relational, value-based approach to prevent disasters that may be coming our way – those produced by a greedy, results-oriented, and egocentric society. This approach is oriented towards long-term vision, nurturing, and education, all of which we will need to rebuild our society.
The hopeful side of me, of course, always thinks of actions we can take and, broadly-speaking, there are two things we can start doing now to prepare the kind of leadership we will need tomorrow:
- Support and educate women to already take up leadership positions – we need as many women as possible to have the capacity and confidence to take the lead as soon as possible, both to prevent further damage, and to rebuild our societies.
- Work with men to help them develop and express their feminine qualities, and to use their privilege to create spaces for women in leadership, acknowledging that sometimes they will need to step back to create room for women’s voices.
A quick look around also made me notice some things that are already happening – women’s and men’s circles, mum retreats, embodied women leadership training, the return of the wise women, and so on and so forth. We have the resources and opportunities, we just need to be more intentional about taking action with everything we do.
I am currently entering a mentorship process with a wonderful young woman, and I hope we will learn together about the immense value we can bring to the world through our own strengths and unique qualities.
A final thought: what can you do in your daily life to support the development of feminine leadership?
Zlatina Tsvetkova is Learning and Knowledge Manager at Commonland. Zlatina envisions a just, regenerative, and healthy world, rich in nature and human connection, where we can tackle complex problems with a sense of curiosity, confidence and safety that whatever we discover is taking us to a better place. To help create that, she designs, hosts and holds learning and collaborative spaces that bring together diverse perspectives, nature, embodiment and authentic relationships. She brings a variety of models, methodologies, and experiences together in holistic system transformation journeys.