Patriarchy Across the Professions and Women Leaders of Change

1. Patriarchy Across the Professions and Women Leaders of Change Alexandra Yarrow & Pamela Yarrow OLA Super Conference Wednesday, January 30, 2019

2. Differences / similarities Serve all ages Non-partisan Non-profit Quiet (not always!) Fetishised wardrobe Community-led Love singing (usually) Not trained in: Volunteer management, facilities management, public speaking Struggle with stereotypes about our profession See our job as vocation Trusted community voice Engaged in work beyond our walls Our jobs are romanticised Seen as traditional, rules-based Often work alone Dresses and special collars for everyone! Generally smells of incense Male-dominated workforce Definitely secular Generally scent-free Female-dominated workforce

3. What we learned from each other Darrne Stone, Times-Colonialist (Victoria, BC) https://www.timescolonist.com/news/local/victoria-joins-worldwide-women-s-march-1.23150504

4. Once upon a time… a provocative story Think about these questions….. • What would you do during the confrontation? • What would you do the next day? • What would you do in the coming weeks, in your organisational structure?

5. Outline: • Leadership styles and myths: old boys, strongmen; servants and women leaders. • Leadership values: self-awareness, intentional language, inclusivity and collegiality, empowerment, radical tolerance, redefining success.

6. Leadership styles and myths: Old Boys “When the engineer says that the street lighting is inadequate in such-and-such area of the city, everybody is inclined to agree. When the library director says that the reference collection is inadequate, one will probably hear: ‘The what?’ ” Diane Mittermeyer “Public libraries without autonomous boards: what the evidence shows (a matter of filter and noise).” Catherine McKenney https://twitter.com/cmckenney/status/1069742340280061953/photo/1

7. Leadership styles and myths: Strongmen “Leaders who believe they have a personal right to dominate decision-making in many different areas of policy, and who attempt to exercise such a prerogative, do a disservice both to good governance and to democracy.” Archie Brown, The Myth of the Strong Leader: Political Leadership in the Modern Age

8. Leadership styles and myths: Servants and Women Leaders “Servant leadership theory has developed within a historical reality in which male arrogance, self-aggrandizement, or abuse of power is the implicitly identified problem, if only because, historically, leaders have overwhelmingly been male.” Lisa Richmond, Feminists Among Us: Resistance and Advocacy in Library Leadership “Whenever I do a job, such as Senator or Secretary of State, people give me high ratings. But when I compete for a job—by running for office—everything changes.” Hillary Clinton, Hard Choices

9. Leadership Value: Self-awareness “You are how others perceive you – that’s their reality. How they perceive you is based on what they see you do, and how they interpret your behaviour, not what you think. It is influenced by your relationship with them. Don’t assume your work speaks for itself.” Sid Ridgley, Ottawa, March 17, 2015 Kate Beaton, Hark! A Vagrant

11. Audience participation: Once upon a time … a provocative story Tell us! • What would you do during the confrontation? • What would you do the next day? • What would you do in the coming weeks, in your organisational structure? … And finally, here’s how we handled it.

12. Leadership Value: Intentional Language RBG sticker: Anthem Sticker Companyhttps://www.etsy.com/ca/shop/AnthemStickerCompany Bumper sticker: http://waynetradingcompany.com/oscom/product_info.php/products_id/935

13. Leadership values: Inclusivity and Collegiality “There are three means of entering our profession: by degree, by hire, and by spirit. Those who become librarians by the third means—by spirit—don’t have a library degree and may not even have the word “librarian” in their job title, but they clearly have the same mission, skill set, and service outlook as professional librarians.” R. David Lankes, The New Librarianship Field Guide “Whenever we exult in the momentary rise or fall of […] factions, we expose our own narrow-mindedness and a compensatory self-aggrandisement […]. There is room within our walls for all manner of furniture. Mutual fear, and suspicion, and jealousy, are attributes quite unbecoming.” David Yarrow, “Whose Church?”

14. Leadership value: Empowerment

15. Leadership Value: Radical Tolerance “I embrace the label of bad feminist because I am human. I am messy. I am not trying to be an example. I am not trying to be perfect…I am just trying…trying to support what I believe in, trying to do some good in this world.” Roxanne Gay, Bad Feminist “The regret I heard most often from palliative care patients was: I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.” - Bronnie Ware, The Top Five Regrets of the Dying

16. Audience participation:

17. Leadership value: Redefining success “Women have contributed to the fetish of the one-dimensional life, albeit by necessity; the pioneer generation of feminists walled off their personal lives from their professional personas to ensure that they could never be discriminated against for a lack of commitment to their work.” Anne Marie Slaughter, “Why Women Still Can't Have It All“ Sinead Friel "Mortar Battery" https://bit.ly/2VKUN1h

18. Redefining success: continued “I am not free while any woman is unfree, even when her shackles are very different from my own.” Audre Lorde

19. Bibliography & Further reading https://bit.ly/2RWYFgC

20. Thank you! Alexandra.Yarrow@gmail.com Pamela.Yarrow@sympatico.ca

21. Audience participation What is one concrete take-away for you today about your understanding of leadership?