Our programme outcomes and schedule

Week One

Through core readings and reflection activities, participants understand the key concepts and principles behind feminist leadership. They also have a chance to interact online with other course participants and connect with a small peer group. Time commitment: Approximately 1.5 hours in your own time.

Week Two

Participants take part in a live webinar: our online ‘feminist classroom’. They get to know each other better, start to explore different definitions of feminist leadership, and learn to distinguish between ‘feminine’ leadership and feminist leadership. Time commitment: two and a half hours.

Week Three

You will explore how and why intersectionality is so important for feminist leaders and through additional readings and reflection activities continue to deepen your understanding of intersectionality and how intersecting oppressions show up in our workplaces. Participants will also get the chance to spend an hour with a feminist leader who is already applying these principles to the way they work. Time commitment: approximately 3 hours in live sessions, 1.5 hours in your own time.

Week Four

Peer group connection. A chance to connect with your peer group, reflect on programme content to date and provide mutual care and support.

Week Five

Participants will begin to understand different dimensions of power and how they can adversely affect both ourselves and those we work with. They will reflect upon how these different dimensions of power show up in their own workplaces. Time commitment: approximately 1.5 hours in your own time.

Week Six

Via a live webinar, participants will explore a framework for analysing inequalities in our organisations, and will be introduced to strategies that can be used to promote greater equity in the workplace. They will start to reflect on what this means for their own organisations, their vision for feminist organisations, and their own leadership practice. Time commitment: approximately two hours.

Week Seven

Participants will understand how they as leaders can harness positive forms of power, and will also prepare for week nine’s webinar by starting to examine their own privilege. Time commitment: 1.5 hours in your own time.

Week Eight

Participants will participate in a live webinar where feminist ideas of power and privilege are explored in more depth, and where they are able to identify concrete ways their privilege effects their approach to leadership. Time commitment: approximately two hours.

Week Nine

Rest and reflection week! A chance to rest, reflect and recharge.

Week Ten

In this week we will hold a one-day online training. We’ll kick off by exploring how specific feminist leadership principles can be translated into action, with a particular focus upon power-sharing and accountability. We’ll spend the rest of the day learning about radical approaches to self-care, and how to create cultures of mutual care for your team mates. Time commitment: one-day training with lots of breaks! 

Week Eleven

In a 3-hour live session, we’ll discuss how and why collective action and building partnerships and alliances is so central to feminist leadership, and explore feminist approaches to partnership building in a live webinar. We’ll also spend some time collectively planning for how we are going to start to take action to apply what we have learned. Time commitment: approximately three hours.

There will be a gap of a few weeks between the sessions in week eleven and twelve, which gives participants time to start to apply what they have been learning. During this period, participants will also benefit from the insights of a second guest speaker who is already bringing feminist leadership principles to the way they work.

Week Twelve

In week 12 we all share how we have been putting learnings into practice, what has gone well and not so well, and how we can continue to support each other in our feminist leadership journeys. We’ll also identify key strategies to tackle some of the resistance we might face as we start to put feminist leadership into practice. Time commitment: approximately three hours.