Women’s leadership in peace building now recognised by UN

Sometimes you read something in your computer and it just comes across as sweet music. That happened for me today when I read a great report in the Guardian.

The UN Security Council has voted unanimously on Resolution 2122 which puts women’s leadership at the centre of all efforts to resolve conflict and promote peace. “It answers the chorus of voices from the global women’s movement to focus on women’s roles as peace leaders. And it recognises, loud and clear, that gender equality and the empowerment of women are critical to international peace and security,” said Mlambo-Ngcuka, Executive Director of UN Women.

Women, along with children are the main victims of war and conflict, and have long been excluded from conflict resolution and peace talks. Now that will change. Not only will women have a voice but their different approach, priorities and skills could produce much better outcomes. This is a Red Letter Day !

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Why Feminine Leadership is important

I am excited to announce that I shall be working with the Brooklyn Institute in Sydney and visiting there in November to deliver a workshop programme on Feminine Leadership. And I stress the feminine approach and not just women’s leadership because it is so important for us to acknowledge that we do things differently and it is that difference which now needs to be leveraged.

Check out the short video here where I talk about the power of feminine leadership.

How women broke the deadlock in the Government Shutdown in the USA

Men created the mess, now women get them out of it!

This is what Senator Mark Pryor said yesterday in Washington. An article in the Huffington Post speaks about how it was the men who had got the USA into a mess with the Government Shutdown this month but it was the women who had got the country out of the mess.

Interesting! And if you think that is just enthusiastic or biased reporting then you can actually see and hear Senator Mark Pryor speak about the role of the women senators and his admiration for their work at the Huffpost article.  I can remember standing at Amsterdam Airport departure gate and watching in disbelief as the announcement was made on TV that the Government was going into shutdown mode … a presenter stood in New York with the Statue of Liberty behind her talking about how tourist attractions would be closing. I thought … what are they thinking??!! How could anyone in politics let this happen ….. it seemed so obvious to me that individual interests and aspirations were being valued over the common good and what was needed for the people of America. Looking from the outside at America you get the idea that the players involved don’t realise the damage they are doing with the brand of America in the eyes of the rest of the world.

Then the news today of the breakthrough.  Again … how brilliant is that?!   What’s so great about this is that the valuable contribution made by women to the advancement of  the government negotiation process is not being overlooked as it so often is. It is actually being celebrated and the key women are being given credit, which, as most women will agree, is a rare thing indeed as we so often work hard and unacknowleged behind the scenes.

This revelation affirms that the role of feminine leadership is being recognised as a solution for some of the world’s most challenging problems. Indeed it might even be the case that women do have the leading role to play.  We do have special skills which the Senator highlighted in his speech which can make the difference.

According to the Post’s Laura Bassett, after a deal was announced Senator John McCain said “Leadership, I must fully admit, was provided primarily from women in the Senate.“

Senator Pryor spoke of his admiration for his women colleagues after watching them negotiate. “The truth is, women in the Senate is a good thing,” he said. “We’re all just glad they allowed us to tag along so we could see how it’s done.”

Out of 14 senators in the cross party group, six were women. The group was started by Susan Collins (R-Maine) who told The New York Times,  “I don’t think it’s a coincidence that women were so heavily involved in trying to end this stalemate. Although we span the ideological spectrum, we are used to working together in a collaborative way.”

That’s the golden nugget isn’t it?  It’s women’s capacity to work together and put aside differences to find common ground so that we can collaborate and serve the greater good of all. Apparently,  the 20 women in the Senate have formed strong friendships of trust.  One of the group spoke about how those important relationships make a difference when we have to deal with what  really matters.

This is what we women do so well …. we prioritise and value relationships and communication so that trust is there when collaboration is needed.