Session Type: Workshop Accepted by MIG(s): Public Time Allotted: 75 Description: This workshop will use critical discourse analysis to examine leadership strategies of women leaders. The participants will view speeches on YouTube, analyze the words of women leaders to exercise power and their call to action, and identify implications of discourse studies for engendering leadership for peace in the public sector. Abstract: The workshop involves viewing the speeches of women leaders on YouTube and applying critical discourse analysis. The participants will analyze the ways the political speeches of women leaders enact, legitimate, reproduce or challenge relations of power and dominance to transform their societies. The participants will examine the rhetorical argument of the political images and speeches of the women leaders, infer any cultural choices in communicating through speeches, and discern their transformative leadership strategies. Finally, the participants will identify implications of critical discourse analysis for engendering leaders in the public sector.
As part of my own self-reflection, I chose women leaders from countries where I have worked and lived—Sudan, Philippines, Liberia, South Africa, and Afghanistan. Quite serendipitously, a common thread among these countries is transition from conflict to peace; a condition calling for transformative leaders. The participants will deduce how these leaders enhance motivation, morale and performance by action and by words. First, the participants will look at the image of the speaker and then listen to the speech. Secondly, the participants will attempt to deduce the speaker’s persona and ethos, identify the listeners or audience to the speech, and the exigency of the speech. Thirdly, the participants will infer what cultural factors influenced the way the speaker portrayed herself, what are the cultural expectations or values of the audience by the way the speaker addressed the audience, and how would the speaker have to change her persona or speech or delivery if the speaker were to communicate effectively to an audience from another culture. Finally, the participants will identify how to improve discourse to engender leadership for peace.
The women leaders are:
President Cory Aquino was voted President of the Philippines in 1986-1992. Despite 9 coup attempts, she brought back democracy, restored investor confidence in the economy, and enacted legal and constitutional reforms. She died in August 2009. Her husband Senator Ninoy Aquino was the most vocal of the opposition to the Marcos regime. Upon return from exile in the US to the Philippines in 1983, Senator Aquino was assassinated and Cory Aquino became the unwilling and reluctant leader of the opposition. Cory proved to be a charismatic leader, inspiring orator, and skilled campaigner. When President Marcos called for snap elections in 1985, Cory won but Marcos was declared the winner. Cory called for a series of civil disobedience marches, now known as People Power Revolution that led to the ouster of Marcos.
President Ellen Sirleaf Johnson is the 24th and current President of Liberia, elected in 2006. She served as Assistant Minister of Finance in 1972-1973, resigned after a disagreement about spending, and became Minister of Finance 1979-April 1980. In April 1980, Master Sergeant Samuel Doe seized power in a military coup wherein President Tolbert was assassinated. A purge followed, so Sirleaf escaped and went to exile in Kenya where she served as Vice President of the Africa regional bank of Citibank. When the ban on political parties was lifted, she returned but was placed under house arrest. When allowed to go as an exile, she went to Washington, DC where she served as Vice President of the Equator Bank and board member of the Synergos Institute. In 1992, she joined the UNDP as Assistant Administrator and Director, Regional Bureau of Africa. In 1997, she run against Charles Taylor as President and won second. In 2004–2005 she chaired the Governance Reform Commission. She is a member of Women Waging Peace.
Ms. Graca Machel was first lady of Mozambique (1975-1986) and South Africa (1998-2000). Her latest initiative, with Nelson Mandela, is convening the Global Elders, a group of world leaders, of a certain age, to continue contributing their wisdom, leadership and integrity to tackle some of the world's toughest problems. In 1973, Ms Machel joined the Mozambican Liberation Front (FRELIMO) and became a schoolteacher. In 1975, following the independence of Mozambique, she was appointed Minister for Education and Culture and got married to President Zamora Machel (who was killed in a plane accident in 1986); and produced the the ground-breaking United Nations Report on the Impact of Armed Conflict on Children. Her first husband died in a plane crash over South Africa in 1986. In 1998, she married Nelson Mandela who was then first black South African President.
Dr Sakeena Jacobi, President and Executive Director of Afghan Institute of Learning (AIL), ran underground schools during the Taliban reign (1995 to 2001). Today, AIL helps 350,000 Afghan girls and women through education and medical intervention. Sakeena was born in Herat, Afghanistan, came to the United States in the 1970s, earning a bachelor’s degree in biological sciences from the University of the Pacific and a master’s and Ph.D. degree in public health from Loma Linda University, and taught at D’Etre University in Michigan. She returned in 1990 to work with Afghan refugees in Pakistan, published eight Dari-language teacher training guides, and served as the Agency Coordinating Body for Afghan Relief (ACBAR) delegate working on the education portion of the UN’s Rehabilitation Plan for Afghanistan.
Dr Anne Itto, Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) Deputy Secretary General for Southern Sudan. Sudan had two phases of civil war--17 years of the Anyanya war (1955-1972) and 13 years waged by the SPLA (1983-2007). The US awarded her a certificate of appreciation for her efforts in the adoption of the policy that guarantees 25% representation for women in all SPLA branches. The party’s executive branch has women on 40% of its core leadership positions and 25% women in all governmental branches. In 1965-1973 she was in exile in Uganda, 1978-1900 taught at the University of Juba, 1980-1981 received her masters in applied entomology from the Imperial College in London, and, in 1983. a Ph.D. from Kansas State University.
Maria Beebe, WSU International Research and Development
Bio: Maria Beebe has over 20 years of international development experience. As a Program Associate at WSU IR&D, Dr. Beebe was the Chief of Party for the Afghan eQuality Alliances. Ms. Beebe has provided leadership in drafting a white paper on E-education in Basic and Further Education in South Africa, and in drafting a concept paper on information communication technologies (ICTs) for education in Ethiopia. She has provided oversight to the development of an e-learning management system that is based on free and open source material and that is not bandwidth intensive and to the development of curriculum on ICT policy and regulation in Africa and public policy and administration in Afghanistan. She has provided leadership and overall coordination for the Network for Capacity Building and Knowledge Exchange in the Telecommunications Sector. The Network involved 21 African and 4 U.S. higher education institutions and regulatory bodies from Africa and the U. S. Ms. Beebe has led workshops on teaching with the Internet or eLearning at African higher education institutions in South Africa, Tanzania, Kenya, Makerere, Malawi, and Nigeria. She co-edited AfricaDotEdu to share lessons learned from networking higher education institutions through the use of ICTs for sustainable development. Ms. Beebe has lived and worked in South Africa, Liberia, and the Sudan. Ms. Beebe has a Master of Arts in Anthropology and Ph.D. in Education in the area of Sociolinguistics from Stanford University.
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