In July, the Women’s Information Consultative Center, with the support of the U-LEAD with Europe Programme, launched the Female Leadership School project. Its goal is to educate and create a safe and supportive environment for female leaders who wish to play a more visible role in the political and public life of their communities.
The project has three components, educational, motivational and analytical.
The Female Leadership School is held as part of the educational component, which consists of 12 online lectures, mentoring sessions and offline meetings. A total of almost 200 applications were received for training, of which 60 participants were chosen to join the School. In three months, they have already attended 10 lectures, which covered topics from the basic principles of gender equality, the basics of advocating initiatives and building coalitions to working with survivors of conflict-related sexual violence and the ability to communicate their projects and combat discrimination.
During mentoring consultations, participants discuss the topic of the lecture together with professional experts, analyse homework, brainstorm and develop ideas that can contribute to the support of women in their community. We want the participants to both learn and share experiences, which is why we have already held one offline meeting where we invited 20 of the most active participants so that we could not only share the implementation of projects with a gender component in communities but also strengthen partnerships between the participants who represent different regions.
Furthermore, the project includes public online meetings that motivate, support and showcase the contributions of women and the value of female leadership. We have already held 4 meetings with Inna Sovsun, MP, Olena Sotnyk, human rights activist, Yevhenii Stasinevych, literary critic and pro-feminist Mykola Yabchenko as speakers. Motivational meetings focused on discussing how female public figures can deal with hate on social media, how not to give up after failures, how to prevent burnout and loss of motivation, and how men can support women.
According to one of the participants of the training, Olesia Danylets, Deputy Head of the Culture and Tourism Department of the Vynohradiv City Council, Zakarpattia Oblast, the training is inspiring and motivating, and the knowledge gained during the lectures is immediately applicable in practice:
“In recent years, we have observed great activity of women both in politics and in the public sector, and, of course, the role of women in the volunteer movement is undeniable. Women are usually very sensitive to the challenges of society, which is not always ready to accept the image of a female leader. The need for a better understanding of the interaction of women in the community, the need to be able to assert oneself and defend one’s own boundaries prompted me to join the Female Leadership School. Each lecture motivated me to act, like a beacon showing the right direction, and inspired further efforts. The knowledge gained at the lectures is already used to write grant applications, broadens our perspectives and facilitates sharing them with colleagues.
Communication with lecturers Olena Sotnyk and Inna Sovsun undoubtedly gave me tools for further work and an understanding of how to practically deal with challenges related to gender inequality not only in my community but also in society as a whole.”
She also noted the convenience of the training format. Even if you are unable to connect directly to the online lecture, you can always view the recording and highlights or even chat with the lecturer.
“Offline meeting as part of training has become a powerful women’s circle of unity. I had the great privilege of meeting participants from different parts of Ukraine, to understand that the realities of war pose different challenges to each of us, but we are united in our desires and aspirations — to create and develop. Studying at the Female Leadership School is about the journey to yourself, about our horizontal connections, about the transformation of an idea into a project, about creativity and new opportunities.”
Another participant, Svitlana Shyian, Director of the Cultural and Leisure Centre, a municipal facility under the Kyrylivka Village Council, Zaporizhzhia Oblast, said that the training motivated her to look at cooperation with the authorities and the development of female leadership in her municipality in a different light:
“When I accidentally saw an ad for participants in the training course of the Female Leadership School, I applied without a moment’s hesitation. My motivation was, firstly, a constant aspiration for self-development and self-improvement and, secondly, the possibility of communication, networking and building interesting and useful connections. I was also interested in hearing answers to personal questions. Were my expectations met? Absolutely! A powerful course that is a must at the moment. I discovered a lot of interesting and new things that I had not paid attention to before. We have explored gender and female leadership in detail. Today, I can safely say that I am responsible for my own development as a leader, and after completing this training, I must promote female leadership in my community with even greater energy and zeal.”
She also emphasised that she now paid attention to gender budgeting in her work. This topic was difficult for her, but after training and explanation by the coaches, it became clear what to look for. And the lecture on advocacy inspired a new perspective on interpolation and cooperation with the authorities.
“The lecture material was creatively chosen and accounted for the current situation. I also had a great experience at the meeting with Yevhenii Stasinevych, “Women and the Feminine in Ukrainian Literature”. Yevhenii spoke about female leadership in our literature in an engaging and accessible way and presented facts that were previously unknown to me. My husband also listened to this meeting with great pleasure. The meeting with Mykola Yabchenko was also meaningful because a man’s point of view is always interesting to us women, and when it comes to female leadership, it is a separate issue altogether.
Victoria Kobyliatska’s lecture “Emphasis on Female Leadership: How to Talk to the Media about Yourself and Your Events” was truly impressive. After all, you need to be able to speak out and talk about yourself.
Meetings like that always leave you inspired and wishing to keep working to the benefit of not only yourself but also your community and Ukraine as a whole. I told my female colleagues about the training course “Female Leadership School” immediately after being selected to join and strongly recommended they sign up if there was another selection. I am sincerely grateful to everyone for the opportunity to join such an interesting and powerful project.”
In October and November, we will continue training, motivational meetings and communication between the participants. The analytical component is ongoing — we are conducting research in four municipalities (Kharkiv, Vinnytsia, Zaporizhzhia and Zakarpattia Oblast) to identify trends in the development of gender equality and the involvement of women in decision-making. For this, the involved female experts use the methods of interviews and analysis of local programmes. We will present the results of the study in early December.