Empowerment workshop on International Woman's Day

[Amanda Fenton]

Shared on the email list March 2013....

Dear All, 

I am conducting a 4hour session with Indian women working for a textile manufacturing company. They work in the corporate office but as the company is family run and male dominated, they believe their growth opportunities are limited, they cannot be in power etc. The company is striving to change this over a period of time.

I want to focus these 4 hours on talking about the power of women and empowering them. Could you please help me with some creative tools/videos and conversations that can take place.

Thank you so much!

Nupur Todi

------------------------

I co-host a women's leadership circle, and I have found the Women's Leadership Kit created by Margaret Wheatley, Ann Linnea, and Christina Baldwin to be very useful. There are three great videos in the kit, as well as a lot of resources and ideas for conversations such as the one you're having. Here's a link: http://www.peerspirit.com/books-womenskit.html

Our circle met last night and started the evening by playing the video "The Need for Women's Leadership" by Margaret Wheatley. She begins and ends the video with the question "Who do you choose to be for this world?" After watching the video, the women were each given a ball of clay and invited to create a vessel of some kind that represented who they choose to be and how they are feeling called to serve. The creations that emerged opened up some great conversations around the way that women serve the world, and transform leadership from hero to host. (There's a photo below of one of the women talking about a piece that she created simply by letting the clay speak to her - she didn't really know what it meant until we all talked about what we saw in her piece.)

I find that the most interesting conversations and profound "a-ha" moments in my women's leadership circles happen when we are immersed in the act of creation and exploration with our hands. Here's another link to a practice I often use where we create the communities we want to be part of out of the items collected in my recycling bin: http://heatherplett.com/2013/02/hosting-the-future-that-wants-to-em...

I wish you all the best in your conversation!

Heather Plett