Our journey
In 2019, we, Sophia Stepf and Lisa Stepf, sisters and performing arts professionals, started research on the topic of ‘female leadership’ for a performance we wanted to create. Feeling uneasy with the current definitions and courses available, we googled ‘feminist leadership’ and came across We Are Feminist Leaders whom we invited for a Zoom session into our rehearsal space. Something shifted and clicked. Following the creation of the performance Boss/y, we read Srilatha Batliwala’s writings on feminist leadership and also took part in the online course with We Are Feminist Leaders. The learning continued with the implementation of the newly gained knowledge into our performing arts practice and running arts companies.
We quickly realised that we wanted to create experiential, embodied, joyful spaces with creative methods in order to start feminist leadership journeys for people working in the arts and beyond. We invited more colleagues and pooled our creative methods from the arts, yoga, democracy learning, new work, and diversity training to find suitable methods of experiencing feminist leadership with body, mind, and emotions.
What is Feminist Leadership?
The concept is a practice that subverts traditional ideas of power and power hoarding. It aims for a socially just world where neither people nor natural resources are exploited and gender equality is realised. Developed in grassroots movements in most countries and North America in the 1970s, these principles are now gaining momentum worldwide, driven by the urgency of social transformation in the face of wars, the climate crisis, and pandemics.
In feminist leadership, there are no single heroes or artistic geniuses, as it focuses on collective power sharing. Feminist leadership nurtures qualities for leadership and transformation in all human beings.
Feminist Leadership in the Arts
The arts have always been the place where utopia is imagined and the status quo of societies is criticised. But do we practice what we preach? Art production is inordinately dependent on taste. This taste is formed in art universities and later executed with curatorial power bequeathed to singular people. Most art institutions—universities, galleries, and performing arts spaces—still operate in patriarchal ways. #MeToo scandals and power abuse are rife in the arts. Why? Because the myth of the male genius single-handedly creating or curating ‘genius’ art and being left unaccountable for his actions is still very much alive. No wonder the gender pay gap in the arts is often as deep as the Mariana Trench. In the end, payment depends on the taste of singularly powerful people who have succeeded in a patriarchal art world.
Feminist Leadership in the Arts looks at how art is made and curated. It questions old modes of production and curation and introduces concepts of transparency, accountability, and collective decision making with the aim of including people of all genders, races, and abilities and paying them fairly. Feminist Leadership in the Arts is not a formula; it is a journey towards an arts world in which we practice what we preach. We and our growing community of collaborators are opening more learning spaces for feminist leadership. We invite people from the arts sector and beyond to join us on this journey. Feminist leadership is a practice for all human beings, and we also invite men to join us.