An Interview with Aparna Uppaluri

Written by Aparna Uppaluri, Global Program, Gender Justice-International Programme Officer, Ford Foundation, India

1. Why is “an approach to leadership that resonates with women” needed?

In contemporary times, much of what constitutes leadership has been ‘appropriated’ as it were, by a certain professionalization of a trait, an attribute, an approach, a commitment or even an ideal that manifests as part of the human condition.  In popular imagination, if we were to take a long historical view of who is called a leader, we think of those who led military expeditions, won wars, fought at the frontlines of some change or the other.  The wars that were fought might have been bloodless, but battle metaphors abound in the language of leadership – adjectives such as “fearless”, “inspirational”, “decisive”, “motivational”… and the list could go on.  Why do I belabour this point?  Precisely because the idea of leadership has carried within it either the full force or just a whiff of a masculine worldview, and a description of the traits that it demands that are not immediately resonant with feminine and/or feminist engagement with the world.  I must be careful here to find a balance between the general and the particular.  I recognize that masculinity and femininity are qualities that reside along a spectrum, and there is assumption that when we say an ‘approach to leadership that resonates with women’ there is a general assumption that when we say women, we are also implying a feminine/feminist worldview.  And we are also working with the assumption that both the historical trajectory of the idea of leadership and the professionalization of this trait, like many many of the structures in society have left women out.  History and the ‘professions’ most certainly have.  And leadership as an essential ingredient of human progress has not been spared.  It is for this simple reason that we need forms and functions of leadership that not only resonate with women but get defined by women.  When we bring women in, we cannot but avoid a analysis of where power resides, because we begin to challenge the structural exclusion that women experience.  When we bring in women, we are forced to question assumptions that keep so many out of the conversations that impact their lives the most.  We cannot talk about ‘women’ as a category without, then, also talking about race, class, caste, sexuality, geography and nature.  I say this because the historical exclusion of women has made them more embedded in their environment than men, and the opportunity for an intersectional and inclusive view of the world is made more possible, if we imagine a leadership that resonates with women.  When we imagine such a leadership, we introduce a chink in the armour that protects and sustains the very structures of power that control and oppress. 

I would perhaps be reproached for taking a very essentialist and idealistic point of view – where is my critique of how women could also appropriate and misuse power?  That critique is not lost on me.  But to give into that critique would also mean that we fail to question the authority of a narrow definition of leadership that has dominated the world thus far.  Isn’t it time we imagine at least half of all world leaders being women, leading the world in a way that resonates with women?

2. Halfway through the Expedition what are you uncovering?

I have had a hard time imagining leadership as something that is not gendered. Everything that is social appears to be gendered in some form or the other. I have a hard time imagining a gender-neutral leadership. Half-way through the expedition, I am beginning to articulate for myself a commitment, and a confidence that feminist leadership is a qualitatively different form of leadership. I am beginning to learn that this form of leadership will face resistance and backlash. I am beginning to feel that a leadership that centres nurture and care needs to build its own vocabulary and framework to be resilient. I have uncovered the power of collective thinking and the power of a flexible, open, non-judgemental space for new thinking to emerge, where disagreements can be enriching without creating conflict. I think we are beginning to understand more concretely that leadership is many things and and the paths to leadership can be paved with greater understanding, compassion, inclusivity, and joy.

To read more about Aparna, click here