:: Woman’s Leadership ::

“Leadership is a relationship among people grounded in the values of honesty, responsibility, integrity and commitment, judged by the achievement of equality and justice, and measured by its impact on the well being of people whose lives it touches.” — James McGregor Burns

To make women’s voices more powerfully heard and have a more meaningful impact on civic reform, the club reaches out to other women’s organizations throughout the city to combine our energies, dreams, and talents to work collaboratively on issues we share.

In the early years, WCC luncheons provided “housewives” with the opportunity to dialogue with other women, empowering them to form opinions of their own. Childcare centers were created for working women during WWII.

Since that time, WCC has offered the larger community of women workshops in leadership training. In 2003, we explored a new more inclusive model of leadership: Participatory Learning in Action. The goal of this workshop –“In a Stronger Voice: Honoring the Leader Within” — was threefold: to find our common voice through trust building, to strengthen that voice through courageous conversations, and to mobilize our voices for action through collaborative work. We reached out beyond the club membership to the broader intercultural community of women so that together we could learn to reframe the issues in terms of our own life experiences. In our 2005 workshop – “Building Community Through Dialogue: Women Connecting Across Difference” — we focused on developing dialoguing skills and practicing courageous conversations across difference.

“One of the easiest human acts is also the most healing. Listening to someone. Simply listening. Not advising or coaching, but silently and fully listening. If we can speak our story, and know that others hear it, we are somehow healed by that.” – Meg Wheatley

To follow up with this training, the Status of Women Action Group seeks to provide a network of support, trust, and solidarity with women in Over the Rhine so that together we can build stable integrated neighborhoods in the inner city. We are currently planning a series of “Kitchen Table Talks” in Over the Rhine to engage women in dialogue, to share our stories and the wealth of women’s wisdom, and to create trust and solidarity amongst ourselves as sisters. Our vision is to create a space in which women – united by a common culture of female experience – can come together and share our dreams of a just and peace-loving community.