Rural women, decision making and leadership within environmental and Landcare groups
CL (Ciel) Claridge
Centre for Integrated Resource Management (CIRM), University of Queensland, St Lucia QLD
PP: 183 - 195
Abstract
The past decade has seen a call for more decision making power for and by Australian women. In 1988 the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet and the Office of the Status of Women reported that greater female participation in decision making was identified by many women as being important. The NWCC (1992) found that women were frustrated by their exclusion from formal environmental bodies, and the women made recommendations to achieve gender balance in environmental decision making. The Australian Council for Women (ACW) held a series of consultations with non-government organisations and women throughout Australia in 1994. The consultations provided advice to the Government for the second part of Australia's national report to the United Nations for the Fourth World Conference for Women. The report of the consultations (ACW 1994) saw the need for parity for women in decision making at all levels of society: within the family and the home; in the community; at the workplace in industry, government and nongovernmental organisations; and in Parliament. Increasing the number of women in government would have an exponential effect on women's influence in Australia. It has been found that women in government will support women's issues to a greater degree than will men, and that the more women there are in government, the more forcefully will individual women push for these issues (Mezey 1994).
Women bring to decision making and leadership positions their specific attributes and skills, and these skills are valuable. Women prefer and tend to adopt an alternative feminine leadership model characterised by cooperativeness, collaboration of managers and subordinates (Loden 1995; Chater & Gaster 1995; Eagly & Johnson 1990), less control by the leader (Chater & Gaster 1995), problem solving based on intuition (Hooyman & Cunningham 1986), and empathy and rationality (Loden 1985). When working in a group, women are seen by some as the glue that holds the group together (Dominelli 1995; Messinger 1985).
Keywords
women, government, environmental, issues, rural women, organisations, Landcare
References
Alston M (1994) Feminism and farm women. In Franklin M, Short LM and Teather EK (eds) Country women at the crossroads: Perspectives on the lives of rural Australian women in the 1990s. Armidale: University of New England Press.
Alston M (1995) Women on the land: The hidden heart of rural Australia. Sydney: University of New South Wales Press.
Australian Council for Women (1994) 'Report on consultations with nongovernment organisations and Australian women. February to September 1994'. Advice to the government for the second part of Australia's national report to the United Nations for the 4th World Conference for Women. ACW.
Brown VA and Switzer M (1991) Women and ecologically sustainable development: Engendering the debate. Canberra: Office of the Status of Women, Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet.
Chater K and Gaster G (1995) The equality myth: A guide for women who want to make a difference in the world of business and for men who are ready for change. St Leonards, NSW: Allen & Unwin.
Claridge CL (in press) Women, the environment and development: What is the connection?
Claridge CL (1993) Towards an understanding of women's participation in ecological sustainability. Brisbane: Centre for Integrated Resource Management, The University of Queensland.
Dempsey K (1994) The oppression of rural women in Australia. In Franklin M, Short LM and Teather EK (eds) Country women at the crossroads: Perspectives on the lives of rural Australian women in the 1990s. Armidale: University of New England Press.
Dominelli L (1995) Women in the community: Feminist principles and organising in community work. Community Development Journal 30(2): 133-143.
Eagly AH and Johnson BT (1990) Gender and leadership style: A meta-analysis. Psychological Bulletin 108(2): 233-256.
Freedman L (1994) 'Ladies a plate please: Feminism and rural women'. Paper presented at Monash University Women's Studies Seminar, 02 May 1994.
Hall CM (1992) Women and empowerment: strategies for increasing autonomy. Washington: Hemisphere Publishing Corporation.
Healy LM, Havens CM and Chin A (1990) Preparing women for human service administration: Building on experience. Administration in Social Work 14(2): 79-94.
Hogan E (1994) Making women visible: Reflections on working with women in agriculture in Victoria. In Franklin, M Short LM and Teather EK (eds) Country women at the crossroads: Perspectives on the lives of rural Australian women in the 1990s. Armidale: University of New England Press.
Hooyman, N and Cunningham R (1986) An alternative administrative style. In Van Den Bergh N and Cooper L (eds) Feminist visions for social work. National Association of Social Workers. Silver Spring, Maryland, USA.
Loden M (1985) Feminine leadership or how to succeed in business without being one of the boys. New York: Times Books.
Mellor M (1992) Breaking the boundaries: Towards a feminist green socialism. London: Vigaro Press.
Messinger R (1985) Women in power and politics. In Eisenstein H and Jardine A (eds) The future of difference. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press.
Mezey SG (1994) Increasing the number of women in office: Does it matter. In Cook EA, Thomas S and Wilcox C (eds) The year of the woman: myths and realities. Boulder: Westview Press.
Mohai P (1992) Men, women and the environment: An examination of the gender gap in environmental concern and activism. Society and Natural Resources 5: 1-19.
National Women's Consultative Council (1992) A question of balance: Australian women's priorities for environmental action. Canberra: Australian Government Publishing Service.
Pietila H and Vickers J (1994) Making women matter: The role of the United Nations. London: Zed Books.
Poiner G (1990) The good old rule: Gender and other power relationships in a rural community. Sydney: Sydney University Press.
Poiner G (1994) Landscape with figures: Femininity and rural views. In Franklin M, Short LM and Teather EK (eds) Country women at the crossroads: Perspectives on the lives of rural Australian women in the 1990s. Armidale: University of New England Press.
Rowland R (1988) Woman herself: A transdisciplinary perspective on women's identity. Melbourne: Oxford University Press.
Sagrestano LM (1992) The use of power and influence in a gendered world. Psychology of Women Quarterly 16: 439-447.
Savage M (1992) Women's expertise, men's authority: Gendered organisations and the contemporary middle classes. In Sabage M and Witz A (eds) Gender and bureaucracy. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers/The Sociological Review.
Schaffer K (1990) Women and the bush: Forces of desire in the Australian cultural tradition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Teather EK and Franklin M (1994) Signposts for rural women in the 1990s. In Franklin M, Short LM and Teather EK (eds) Country women at the crossroads: Perspectives on the lives of rural Australian women in the 1990s. Armidale: University of New England Press.
Ward J (1993) Australian community development: Ideas, skills and values for the 90s. Victoria: Community Quarterly and Partnership Press.
Waring M (1988) Counting for nothing: What men value and what women are worth. New Zealand: Allen & Unwin, Port Nicholson Press.
Williams JH (1987) Psychology of women: Behaviour in a biosocial context. New York: W Norton & Co.
eContent Home
