Womens Leadership Learning: Using Psychosocial Development Theory to Inform Practice

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Womens Leadership Learning Using Psychosocial
Development Theory to Inform Practice

• Ruth H. Axelrod
• The Jepson School Summer Institute
• for Leadership and the Liberal Arts
• May 21, 2008

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What is Education?

• Educere (L.) to bring
• up to rear from
• educatus, ex (out of) plus
• ducere (to lead)
• Thus, to become
• educated means
• To become prepared to lead

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The Liberal Arts
Artes liberalis (arts/sciences for free men)

• Originally, education
• for aristocrats
• Seven disciplines
• established in Classical
• Greece/Rome and
• Medieval Europe
• The mother of all the disciplines is philosophy
  (science)

Upanishads Sa vidya ya vimuktaye (knowledge
that liberates)
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The Three Roads (Trivium)

• Artes sermocinales
• (science of discourse, language studies)
• Grammar (language) reading and writing
• Rhetoric (oratory) oral communication
• Dialectic (logic) reasoning

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The Four Roads (Quadrivium)

• Artes reales or artes physicae
• (mathematico-physical sciences)
• Arithmetic number in itself pure number
• Geometry number in space
• Music (harmonics) number in time
• Astronomy (cosmology) number in space and time

Pythagorean disciplines of mathematics
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Philosophy (science) nourishes all seven liberal
arts
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• The Crossroads
• where the disciplines
• come together
• is a
• liberal education
• that teaches one
• to recognize
• the essential oneness
• of all
• Knowledge.

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Goals of a Liberal Education

• Understand the foundations of knowledge and
  inquiry about nature, culture and society
• Master core skills of perception, analysis, and
  expression
• Cultivate a respect for truth
• Recognize the importance of historical and
  cultural context and
• Explore connections among formal learning,
  citizenship, and service to our communities.
• AACU 1998

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• The liberal education calls us to dedicate our
  lives
• to causes larger than ourselves.
• Katherine Haley Will

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The Illiberal Arts

• Artes serviles (arts/sciences for servitors)
• Originally, education for tradesmen and servants
• Occupational/vocational education (for economic
  purposes), e.g., business education

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• It would be catastrophic to become a nation of
  technically competent people who have lost the
  ability to think critically, to examine
  themselves, and to respect the humanity and
  diversity of others.
• Martha Nussbaum

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I sell the shadow to support the
substance. Sojourner Truth
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• An interesting phenomenon is occurring. There's
  an increasing demand for liberal arts graduates
  especially by businesses that offer
  management-training programs. Why the demand?
  Because liberal arts graduates have learned to
  learn.
• John Naisbitt

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A 21st Century Education

• To participate, as a free citizen, in ones
  community, nation and the world and
• To support oneself and ones family.

Therefore We must amalgamate the goals of
liberal and illiberal education.
World map, Peters projection (accurate for land
masses)
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Some Observations About Leadership

• One of the most observed and least understood
  phenomena on earth (Burns 1978)
• Like beauty its hard to define, but you know it
  when you see it (Bennis 1989)
• Complex interaction between theleader and the
  social and organizational environment (Fiedler
  1996)

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• The only thing that seems certain about great
  leadership is that
• it has to do with being
• the right person
• in the right place
• at the right time.
• Ruth Axelrod

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A Liberal Leadership Education

• Broad, diversified perspective
• Multiple disciplines
• History and currency
• Respect and appreciation
• Self- and other-awareness
• Problem-finding and -solving skills
• Critical and systems thinking
• Analysis, interpretation and synthesis
• Communication and interpersonal skills

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Leader Development Programs

• Leader development
• Purpose Improve performance
• Focus on identifying abilities and gaining
  knowledge and skills
• Leadership development
• Purpose Maximize potential
• Focus on developing self-awareness and engaging
  in self-directed learning

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The Self-as-Leader

• Personal growth and integration
• Psychosocial development
• Efficacy at the point of action (Vaill 1992)
• Ones own unique voice
• Sense of self (identity)
• Presentation and mien
• Communication style
• Recognition and use of social power

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• I realizedthat if my voice was loud enough to be
  heard, did I really have to sound like a man?
• West Point Cadet

Friedan 1998
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Womens Psychosocial Development

• Social reality grounded in interdependence
  (Miller 1986)
• Strong attachments fundamental to life (Gilligan
  1993)
• Care and development of others as central to
  lifes work (Belenky, Clinchy, Goldberger,
  Tarule 1997)
• Morality of conflicting responsibilities caring
  (Gilligan 1993)
• Strength is collaboration (Hegelsen 1990)

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Womens Unique Challenges

• Societal mandates for role segregation
• Hidden social curricula (Hayes Flannery 2000)
• Double-binds (Jamieson 1995)
• Do not learn in childhood to use power (Miller
  1986)
• Need to create new ways to manage conflict
  (Miller 1986)

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Womens Ways of Learning

• Psychologically safe environment
• Connected in relationship with others (Belenky
  et al. 1997)
• Communicating in womens language (Tannen 1986)
• Grounded in womens experience (Belenky et al.
  1997)
• Collaborative construction of knowledge
  connected knowing (Belenky et al. 1997 Tarule
  1996)

(See, also, Knowles 1990)
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Conclusion

• We must develop new language that reflects
  womens unique experience and new mythologies to
  validate her place in the world.

Only when women have equal opportunity as
leaders, will the great problem of women and
of leaders be resolved. Virginia Woolf
(paraphrase of her statement on writers)
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• Genuine education knows no boundaries
• Robert Bellah

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Addendum A Tool For Course Design
To enlarge the chart, copy into a blank MS Word
document.
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The Presenter

• Ruth is a part-time faculty member at The George
  Washington University, University of Maryland
  College Park and University of Maryland
  University College. Her primary field is
  organizational behavior and development, with
  specialties in leadership, decision-making and
  small group dynamics. She earned B.A., Master of
  Health Services Administration, and Ph.D. degrees
  at GW.
• Her research interests include the role of
  interpersonal trust in organizational
  relationships, the dynamics of work groups,
  experiential and project learning, management as
  a liberal art and leadership development.
• She is a member of the Academy of Management,
  Organizational Behavior Teaching Society and
  other professional groups. She is a co-founder
  of GWUs Womens Leadership Institute.
• She can be reached at raxelrod_at_gwu.edu.

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References (Selected)

• Association of American Colleges Universities.
  (1998, October). Statement on Liberal Learning.
  AACU Washington, DC.
• Belenky, M., Clinchy, B., Goldberger, N.,
  Tarule, J. (1997). Women's ways of knowing The
  development of self, voice, and mind. New York
  HarperCollins/Basic Books.
• Bellah, R. N., Madsen, R. N., Sullivan, W. M.,
  Swidler, A., Tipton, S. M. (1991). The good
  society. New York Alfred A. Knopf, p. 178.
• Bennis, W. (1989). On becoming a leader. Reading,
  MA Addison-Wesley.
• Burns, J. M. (1978). Leadership. New York Harper
  Row.
• Fiedler, F. E. (1996). Research on leadership
  selection and training One view of the future.
  Administrative Sciences Quarterly, 41(2), 241-.
• Friedan, B. (1998). The second stage (2nd ed.).
  Cambridge, MA Harvard University Press.
• Gilligan, C. (1993). In a different voice
  Psychological theory and women's development.
  Cambridge, MA Harvard University Press.

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References (contd.)

• Hayes, E. Flannery, D. (2000). Women as
  learners The significance of gender in adult
  learning. San Francisco Jossey-Bass.
• Helgesen, S. (1990). The female advantage
  Women's ways of leadership. New York Doubleday.
• Jamieson, K. H. (1995). Beyond the double bind
  Women and leadership. New York Oxford University
  Press.
• Kegan, R. (1982). The evolving self Problem and
  process in human development. Cambridge, MA
  Harvard University Press.
• Knowles, M. (1990). The adult learner A
  neglected species (4th ed.). Houston, TX Gulf.
• Miller, J. B. (1986). Toward a new psychology of
  women (2nd ed.). Boston Beacon Press.
• Naisbitt, J. (1982). Megatrends. New York Warner
  Books.
• Nussbaum, M. (1997). Cultivating Humanity A
  Classical Defense of Reform in Liberal Education.
  Cambridge, MA Harvard University Press.
• Tannen, D. (1986). That's not what I meant! New
  York Ballentine Books.

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References (contd.)

• Tarule, J. M. (1996). Voices in dialogue
  Collaborative ways of knowing. In N. Goldberger
  J. Tarule B. Clinchy M. Belenky (Eds.),
  Knowledge, difference, and power Essays inspired
  by "Women's ways of knowing" 274-304. New York
  Basic Books.
• Vaill, P. (1992). Personal communication.
• Will, K.H. (2007). Speech at Gettysburg College
  Commencement, May 20.
• Woolf, V. A room of one's own October 2, 2006.

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Illustrations

• Fragonard, A. (c. 1776). Young Girl Reading.
• Von Landsberg, H. (c. 12th C). The Seven Liberal
  Arts (painting). In Hortus deliciarum.
• Hussey, M. (ed.). (1967). The Seven Arts
  (woodblock print). In Chaucers world A
  pictorial companion. Cambridge, UK Cambridge
  University Press.
• Hokusai. (1819). A Magician Turns sheets of
  Paper Into Birds (woodblock print).
• __ (c. 1935). Eleanor Roosevelt (photograph).
• Roerich. (c. 1900). Hermit Mysterious Old Man
  (painting). Retrieved from http//www.roerich.org/
  nr.html?midbio_rus
• Hiroshige. (n.d.). Benkei. Source unknown.
• __ (c. 1864). Carte de visite for Sojourner Truth
  (photograph).
• __ (1974). World map (Peters Projection). Source
  unknown.

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Illustrations (contd.)

• Clockwise from top (a) Al-Kahina, Berber
  princess who led defense against the Moslem
  invaders (b) Margaret Sanger, who defied the
  laws to teach women birth control in New York
  City
• (c ) Laxmi bai Rani of Jhansi, who led a revolt
  agaist the British Raj (d) Mother Teresa of
  Calcutta, who cared for the poorest of the
  poor.
• (a) CHP Women West Point. (n.d.) Retrieved May
  18, 2008, from http//www.israelforum.com/blog_art
  icle.php?aid1333086 (b) Committee on Women in
  the NATO Forces. (2003). Canadian soldiers in
  Bosnia. Retrieved May 18, 2008. Retrieved May
  18, 2008, from http//www.nato.int/multi/photos/wo
  men.htm (c ) U.S. Army Corps. (n.d..) Soldier in
  Iraq. Retrieved May 18, 2008, from
  http//www.vcorps.army.mil/VictoryForward/album/
  1ad_47fsb_female_soldier_iraq_27sep06.jpg (d)
  Source and date unknown.

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Illustrations (contd.)

• __ (c. 1960s). Womenkind is Awakening Italian
  Women's Liberation Poster. Retrieved May 18,
  2008, from http//italy.indymedia.org/news/2006/01
  /966103.php.
• Wyeth, Andrew. (1948). Christinas World
  (watercolor).