Women supporting women in the public sector

This article is written by Maricarmen Plata, Secretary for Access to Rights and Equity and Betilde Muñoz-Pogossian, Ph.D Director of Social Inclusion at the Organization of American States. Opinions are personal. They do not represent those of the Organization of American States.

• The problem: A consequence of the limited representation of women in decision-making positions has been a narrative that women must oppose other women in competing for leadership positions. Building a culture of sisterhood or sororidad amongst women can support dynamics that promote more women reaching decision-making roles together.
• Why it matters: Changing female and male power relations matters because it will change outcomes as women’s voices are considered on the same footing as men’s. However, this requires that women´s roles and voices are amplified through a collective effort that includes other women.
• The solution: To strengthen relationships of sisterhood or sororidad amongst women requires recognising and practising behaviours to change how women interact. Some of these range from composing teams with 50% women’s representation, amplifying proposals by female colleagues to, among others, identifying ‘mansplaining’ or ‘manterrupting’ when these present themselves in professional environments.

Women’s lack of representation in decision-making positions, be they in the public or private sectors and even in politics, has had many negative consequences for society such as, not enjoying the benefits of the talent of half the population, or ensuring that decisions benefit from a diversity of views and perspectives.

Sisterhood is a tool to exercise feminist leadership, especially in the public sector.

However, there is a very pervasive consequence of the limited space women have had in hierarchies, and that is the fact that some women have learned to see other women as competition (for those same very limited resources and spaces) and not as allies in the wider goal of ensuring women’s voices are heard and considered on equal footing with men. Instead of seeing them as rivals for those spaces and opportunities, we propose women in all spheres promote a commitment to sisterhood because it has more benefits.

But what is sisterhood as in sororidad or sorority? Sorority is a term that comes from the Latin word soror which means sister. It has been used to name women students’ organisations who group themselves to be “sisters” or each other’s support through the university experience. However, in Latin American countries, the word sorority has been used to illustrate the sisterhood amongst women with respect to questions of gender equality, and women’s access to all rights. The Mexican anthropologist, Marcela Lagarde, argues that sorority is “a sisterhood or friendship amongst women who have been socialised in a patriarchal world to see each other as enemies”, and that calls on them to become accomplices to transform societal norms and fully promote a feminist agenda together. So in practice, sisterhood is a tool to exercise feminist leadership, especially in the public sector.

The concept of sororidad or sisterhood has been amply written about by Latin American feminists, and generates a conscience and culture of support among women. Finding ways to practise it must be the goal in the efforts to have more women represented in public sector leadership.

But what does this sisterhood look like? What are some of the practices that as executive women we should engage in to promote sorority towards other women? Here are seven things you can do to practise it in your day-to-day professional life:

1. Respect the leadership of women even when they don’t think like you. If women have been socialised to see women as rivals, even when they have experiences and opinions in common, it is expected that the rivalry will be fomented when they don’t think like them. Resist the temptation to minimise the proposals, or ideas from women who you do not share the same experience with. Give other women the benefit of not having an additional element of resistance in you; especially considering how practices and organisational cultures often have intrinsic barriers for women. If they think really differently than you, we are not proposing to wholeheartedly support them, a respectful dissent should suffice. Avoid engaging in attacks that minimise or destroy other women personally, especially in public, or on social media.
2. Amplify the proposals made by women in your team, and of your female colleagues. Amplification is a technique that became highly visible when used by women in executive positions in President Obama’s White House, to fend off being made invisible in meetings by other colleagues. Through this practice of amplification, every time a woman made a proposal or a contribution to the discussion, the other women asked for the floor, repeated the proposal made by the other women, and credited the proposal to the women who made them. This made colleagues, men and women, become more aware of the contributions and also deterred men from appropriating those ideas for themselves.
3. Drop women’s names when deciding on project assignments, and professional growth opportunities. Another practice that will go a long way in generating sisterhood among executive women is recognising the importance of actively recommending other women for jobs, or project assignments and opportunities. To this end, it is valuable for women to come together and share their strengths and capacities or experiences, and even generate voluntary rosters or lists to have readily available when it becomes necessary to make proposals for the composition of teams, or promotions. It is our experience that the more you do this, the more allies you will have in your work environment. They will also, in turn, do the same, generating an active coalition of support, women to women.
4. Hard stops on meetings or panels that exclude your female colleagues. If you see that there is an effort to exclude female colleagues from meetings, call it out and decline any invitation to promote or participate. Sorority means that women intentionally come together on these types of initiatives. This means that when invited to an all-male panel (the so-called ‘manels’) where female colleagues that you know should be there are not, it is important to address the problem and maybe even elect to decline these invitations openly specifying this as the reason. This may mean losing potential opportunities, but it will go a long way not just to show support for other women through sisterhood, and to transform the way things are done in organisations.
5. Use social media to replicate other women’s accomplishments. Social media and online presence are strong tools available for executive women to disseminate their work and share content on relevant issues that connect with their professional paths and careers. These tools can also be used to support and shed light on the work of other female colleagues who are making important accomplishments. It is not just positive for women-to-women relationships but also an excellent, public way to show how sorority amongst executive women works. Hopefully, others see it and want to emulate it, so that a network of support is created amongst women.
6. Call out situations in which executive women’s proposals are made invisible. A way women’s contributions in organisations are made invisible includes situations where colleagues ignore their comments or proposals, and then credit them to someone else. But it also includes situations in which a woman is speaking and others start whispering in parallel conversations with others or start coughing or making noises. It also includes situations in which a woman starts to talk, and others “decide” they need to use the restroom. When this happens to a female colleague, call it out on her behalf because these are additional ways to minimise their roles and contributions.
7. Be ready to jointly fight ‘manterrupting’ and ‘mansplaining’. ‘Manterrupting’ is a term that illustrates situations when a male counterpart constantly interrupts or talks louder than (and at the same time as) female colleagues. Mansplaining refers to situations when a man insists on explaining to a woman something that the woman evidently understands, and he does it in a condescending tone. It is also a form of invisibilisation that can happen to anyone but female colleagues tend to suffer the most. Recent data confirms that professional women are victims of mansplaining in their workplaces around six times a week, or 312 times a year! When this happens, another way to demonstrate sorority is to join your female colleague in denouncing, and making sure her voice and her perspective are heard.

While we continue to work on promoting policies that incorporate and retain women in decision-making positions, paradigm and societal changes are necessary to ensure that these efforts result in higher numbers as well as true female leadership. Calling on all women to actively engage in these changes can begin by promoting conversations about the relational aspects of working together as women.

Even when perspectives and positions can vary, there is great value in coming together by respecting our diversity to form a sisterhood. Collectively, women can be a force for change in patriarchal environments, and set new standards that will be the basis for new types of leadership, new types of organisations, and communities where the voices of women are not only heard but listened to.

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