About Me
SHELeads. was a survey completed by over 70 women from a variety of church denominations, backgrounds, ages and ethnicities who have active leading roles in their local churches.
Below is a snapshot of the results I found and a few of my own thoughts from this. My purpose in doing this questionnaire was not to 'rant' about the problems women leaders may face but to use it as an access point for solutions, asking, 'How can we ensure the challenges faced now are not the challenges of future generations.'
The results from this question say a great deal! So many women have asked themselves this question, ‘Can I really lead as a woman?’
My hope is that every female leader will not have to ask this question, but will believe that they most certainly can lead and it has nothing to do with their gender! I hope this question will be eradicated!
If you are someone who has asked yourself that question or continues to ask yourself, I encourage you to tell yourself every day that God has called you, He has chosen you and so walk in your calling!
Although many women in a previous question said there was fair opportunity for a woman to lead, when it came to this question only just over half felt men in leadership were actively seeking to raise female leaders. Is this worth a conversation? Could you help your leadership team become a little more intentional about raising women to lead? Maybe this raises a wider question of how leaders are found and developed? If people just 'end up leading' then are women likely to just 'end up' especially if they are not close friends with the man who is spotting the potential leaders? How could you as a women especially if you are in a prominent leadership role, help and encourage them men around the table to see potential in women to lead?
For the majority of female leaders they have encountered someone who does not believe women should lead. This was no great surprise in my research, however it is saddening to see that this is always something a woman who leads has to battle against.
There will most likely always be someone who does not believe in her. I hope this will encourage both male and female to do all they can to encourage and support young women coming through so that the negative voices are drowned out by the positive ones!
The table to the right shows the biggest struggles female leaders see for young women coming through the leadership pipeline.
You can see that lack of mentors is the biggest struggle. I hope for anyone reading this, if you are a female leader that you will actively seek to help mentor and develop young women coming through.
This may require some time to be sacrificed but it will be well worth it if in 20 years time we have increased the amount of women leading! Be intentional about developing others!
In many ways this question was sad but unsurprising! The key point from this is that the women filling in this questionnaire probably are the ones that other women look up to!
My encouragement for any female leaders is to become the best person and leader you can so that if this question was asked 10 years from now most people will be able to answer that they do have someone they aspire to be like!
