Women in Leadership

Introduction

The workplace is constantly evolving and changing, and women, who make up almost half of the global workforce, face unique challenges and opportunities in this dynamic environment. Some of the major trends and challenges that affect women in the workplace include job automation, pay gaps and unequal opportunities, work-life balance, and industry bias. Women are still found to be underrepresented in certain industries and fields, such as STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics), where they face a lack of role models, mentors, networks, and recognition. As well as stereotypes that question their abilities, interests, and aspirations in these domains.

According to a recent 2023 Employment Insights Report by Career Junction, it was found that across all sectors, men account for over half of all middle department and senior managerial roles, yet women make up less than one-third. Furthermore, no improvement was found within the gender gap metrics, in particular, executive management/director roles with men accounting for 61% of these jobs and women only accounting for only 30%. These inequalities lead to trends such as quit quitting, an informal term arising within workplace culture where one reduces the amount of effort one devotes to one’s job by stopping the completion of any tasks not explicitly stated in the job description. It reflects a culture where employees are prioritizing their well-being, autonomy, and purpose over loyalty, stability, and status.

In a world where employees are taking back control of their careers, we ask how we can be representatives of diversity and inclusion to empower those around us and those who will come after us. Gender gaps present opportunities for women to leverage their strengths, talents, and potential to contribute to the economic and social development of their communities and countries. Women are and have always been resilient, resourceful, and powerful agents of change who can shape the future of work for themselves and others. The Women in Leadership course is specifically designed for women and organisations that strive to enable women to achieve their professional and personal goals as well as to address the opportunities and obstacles they encounter. The material covered in the course will help you and your organisation to improve on various touch points such as increasing self-assurance and awareness, improving career growth through leadership, communication, and negotiation abilities, overcoming gender bias, and taking notes from powerful women who have succeeded at navigating the new
corporate world.

The lead facilitator, Shireen Chengadu, is not only Richfield’s Chief Academic Officer but is also highly esteemed in the fields of leadership, gender studies and building inclusive organisations – complemented by the voices of men and women in various sectors that are championing true diversity and transformation.

Who is the Course Suitable For

Entry level women managers, senior women managers or women aspiring to be managers in all sectors. This inclusive approach means that we learn first-hand about the intersectionality of race, gender, class, age, sexual identities, religion, culture and ethnicity in relation to women in the workplace.

Furthermore, to the power of truths on individuals and corporate sectors that are on a deliberate path of transformation – this programme is not exclusive to women in these sectors only. Aspiring and current female managers from all sectors will add arich perspective to the entire learning journey, both within and outside the classroom

Topics/Themes to be covered

Topic 1:

Macro, Meso, Micro Levels: We will focus on the policies and practices that inform agendas for diversity and inclusion and transformation and we specifically will look at what women themselves can do to effect change for self and others and the communities in which are located.

Topic 2:

Business, Government, Society: We will learn the skills, techniques, and strategies for lobbying for change at all three levels and by working together with all stakeholders we can address the current constraints that currently seem intractable. We will also become the nudges to one another to become active civil and corporate citizens.

Topic 3:

Agility, Agency and Urgency: Being agile and nimble to respond to curveballs in your personal and professional lives requires us to build our resilience long before the curveballs come. Furthermore, in various personal mastery aspects of the programme you will be catalysed to become agents of change to create the next normal and there is no time like the present to work on the beyond.

Topic 4:

Ambition, Audacity to Dream Big and Authenticity: You will be exposed to strategies to realise your full and authentic potential that allow you to own your audacious goals and never back down on your ambitions.

Learning outcomes

Understanding the historical drivers that underpin women’s struggle for empowerment, gender equality and how these can be applied in our current context.
Understanding the current global and local movements advancing gender equality, inclusion in general and celebrating the voices that were previously silenced but are stronger and vibrant today through critical mass action.
Enabling participants to unlearn, be open to new learning and develop open mind-sets.
Interrogating the growing investment being made in women for economic, moral and leadership diversity imperatives and the impact/ROI of such investments.
Understand intersectionality theory and how that compounds the achievement of gender equality efforts.
Understanding the transformation agendas in the creative industry and comparing the progress to other sectors, both locally and globally.
Identifying the barriers and opportunities for women in all sectors.
Exploring the multi-dimensional leadership spheres where women operate (business, social, home) and how these influence each other.
Diagnosing the current leadership context and how might the leadership styles of women and men complement each other for the VUCA times and the new – next normal.
Engaging with phenomenal women and men leaders from different contexts in order to distal effective leadership lessons.
Building a higher trust index among coalition parties in order to progress our efforts.
Understanding women’s advantages and disadvantages in a tech enabled environment.
Exploring similarities and differences of power dynamics between men and women in leadership roles.
Identifying approaches to manage implicit and explicit, conscious and unconscious bias in our daily practices.
Promoting holistic wellness of women by focusing on occupational medicine (intellectual, physical spiritual, emotional and financial resilience) to enable leadership success in complex times
Creating a tangible takeaway memento as your reminder of your journey/story.