Envisioning Leadership: Principles of Feminist Management in Practice

Abstract

To approach management from the lens of feminist thought creates a tension; if feminism is rooted in an analysis of power, what does it mean to willingly step into a role that accepts some level of power within an institution? What does it mean to not only acknowledge that power but also to wield it thoughtfully, from a feminist perspective? Incorporating feminist values and principles into the day-to-day activities of management requires a willingness to sit within that tension and to consciously find ways to bring those values forward. In the introduction to their edited volume Feminists among Us: Resistance and Advocacy in Library Leadership, Lew and Yousefi (2017) explain their concerns that feminists in librarianship were actively choosing not to enter leadership roles: “Often our colleagues saw an irreconcilable gap between occupying these named positions of power and their personal and professional politics” (p. 1). Their explicit argument is that “a grounding in feminist or other progressive politics is precisely what is needed in library leadership today” (p. 2). This chapter, then, takes up that call by attempting to offer a series of principles and practices explicitly rooted in feminist thought. We hope that readers can use these principles to help define what is most important to them and incorporate various practices immediately into their daily work.