WPSP Institute Days 9 and 10

The Transformative Power of Mentoring and a Critical Mass of Women

“The word has recently gained currency in the professional world, where it is thought a good idea to have a mentor, a wise and trusted counselor, guiding one’s career, preferably in the upper reaches of the organization”

- American Heritage Dictionary

One who helps the wandering traveler does, as it were, light another’s lamp by their own, and it gives no less light because it helped another.

- Gaius

Introduction

Homer’s epic, The Odyssey introduces the first mentor.  Mentor advised the young Telemachus as he went looking for Odysseus, his father.  A mentor can be a role model, advisor, coach, teacher, counselor, supervisor or friend.  This session will examine the critical importance of a mentor/mentee relationship to women’s advancement in public service and civic engagement.

9:00 – 10:00 a.m. Keynote Address

• Professor Charles J. Ogletree - Professor Ogletree is Jesse Climenko Professor at Harvard Law School, the founder of the school’s Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice at Harvard Law School.  Professor Ogletree was the legendary mentor to both Michelle and Barack Obama when they were law students at Harvard Law School. He will discuss the critical importance of a mentoring relationship through the prism of stories of mentor/ mentee relationships and the different mentoring models that are effective in different social, political and cultural contexts in order to harness the full potential of the mentee.

10:00 – 10:30 a.m.

• Alyse Nelson - Co- Founder, President and CEO of Vital Voices Global Partnerships; Author of Vital Voices: The Power of Women Leading Change around the World

Possible issues for Discussion: How do you define a mentoring relationship? What are the responsibilities of a mentor? The important role of a mentor in passing on the torch and nurturing a new generation of leaders What are the qualities of an effective mentor? How would the mentor/ mentee relationship grow? How can it be mutually reinforcing/ Can mentors learn and benefit from mentees? What is the process of mentoring? How can the mentee go on to mentor others? How have you benefited from mentoring? What are the benefits of serving as a mentor? How do you guide mentees to public service and nurture their advancement?

.

 

10:30 – 11:30 a.m. Group Discussions

11:30 – 12:30 p.m. Role Play before the Plenary

Moderated by two delegates

Refer to materials in session 10

Role play:

Participants will break into groups and develop a local, national or transnational mentoring program. Each group will role play or discuss developing an innovative mentoring program.

Group One:

You will develop a mentoring program for young college students interested in public service.  How would you nurture their interests in public service? What areas would you like to focus on? Would you arrange internship programs, one day of public service? Some examples: A dedicated day of meetings with women in public service;  A forum for women in public service;  Introductions to women in public policy; and visits to national assembly, government offices, political parties, and leading women in public service.  What skills would you like to develop? What are the questions that mentees would come with?  Create a short curriculum for the program.

Group Two:

Develop a mentoring program for women’s advancement in public service. This could be a peer to peer mentoring program or a different model.  What are the innovative strategies you would introduce?   Example:  Periodic roundtables for exchange of information, formal and informal networks (real or virtual) within the agency; guest speaker events etc.

Group Three:

Create a mentoring program for a woman in business who would like to enter public service. What would you do to create such a program?  How would you create a public/ private mentoring program? How can you reach out across disciplines? What are the challenges for doing so? How do you address those challenges? How do you create mutually supportive relationships?

Group Four:

Develop a model of mentoring that could be institutionalized in your agency. This could include a timetable for periodic meetings; training programs; access to networks; associations; and professional groups. It could also include creating a women in public service association.  Create incentives and guidelines for mentoring.

Group Five:

Your organization is marked by an old boys’ network and a male dominated culture. Women are not being promoted, women are not being offered interesting or travel related assignments, women’s voices are not heard or solicited at high level meetings. How do you go about changing this culture by becoming a mentor yourself?  How do you share experiences and information and wise counsel? How do you break change resistant attitudes?   How can you evaluate the benefits of the mentoring program?  Role play the part of a committed mentor or mentee.

 

Second option:Make a presentation on a personal story of a successful mentor/mentee relationship. How did you find your mentor? What led to you finding the mentor? What is the affinity you share?  What is the shared vocabulary, shared stories, shared experiences, shared passions, shared reading, and shared causes? Who has influenced you? Who has encouraged you?  Who looks out for you? Who writes letters of recommendations for you? Is there a quid pro quo? How do you help out the mentor? How do you enrich and enhance the work of the mentor?

12:30 – 2:30 p.m. Lunch Brackett Reading Room (Library)

Insights from Leadership Programs and Mentoring and Networking Initiatives

Luncheon Discussion with:

Michelle Bekkering- Director Women’s Democracy Network, International Republican Institute

Susan Markham- Director of Women’s Political Participation at the National Democratic Institute

Moderated by two delegates

Resource Book of Mentors

Participants will also be given a resource book of international and US organizations prepared by the WPSP Institute at Wellesley College. Participants will be paired off with mentors who have similar interests but participants will be encouraged to access any of the mentors on the list. This will establish continuity and sustainability of the program.

2:30 – 5:30 p.m. Afternoon Session

Temporary Special Measures for Women in Politics:  Valuing Role Models and Changing Perceptions

Introduction: Erasing the Gender Gap

Women cannot transform leadership opportunities for women across society unless their numbers increase. In many countries, gender quotas are responsible for enhancing the participation of women in politics and serve as a mechanism to overcome imbalances in the political representation of men and women and addressing a legacy of discrimination against women. Quotas for women do compensate for actual barriers that prevent women from their fair share of the political seats.  Today, quota systems aim to ensure that women constitute at least a “critical mass” of 30 percent as established by the Beijing Platform of Action that was adopted at the historic Fourth World Conference in 2005 in Beijing.

2:30 – 3:30 p.m. Keynote Presentation: Measuring the Impact of Women’s Leadership

Petia Topalova- International Monetary Fund and co-author of an influential study  (with Lori Beaman,  Rohini Pande and Ester Duflo) on Female Leadership and Educational Attainment for Girls.

The Beaman, Duflo, Pande and Topalova study shows that female leadership influences adolescent girls’ career aspirations and educational attainment. A 1993 law reserved leadership positions for women in randomly selected village councils. Using 8453 surveys of adolescents aged 11 to 15 and their parents in 495 villages, the study finds that, compared to villages that were never reserved the gender gap in aspirations closed by 25% in parents and 32% in adolescents in villages assigned to a female leader for two election cycles. The gender gap in adolescent educational attainment is erased, and girls spent less time on household chores. The study finds no evidence of changes in young women’s labor market opportunities, suggesting that the impact of women leaders primarily reflects a role model effect.

Moderator:  Dr. Sumru Erkut, Associate Director and Senior Scientist, Wellesley Centers for Women, Wellesley College and author of a study on the need for a critical mass of women in the private sector.

This presentation will discuss the way in which elected officials are role models for younger people both boys and girls. The Beaman, Duflo, Pande and Topalova groundbreaking research shows that female politicians play a highly influential and positive role in the lives of young women and men. Topalova will discuss the new study that shows that the increased presence of local female political leaders in India has had a marked impact on adolescents and their families, raising the career aspirations and educational performance of young women.

Quotas in Indian local government or the Panchayat Raj

The 1993-94 elections in India brought about some 800,000 women into active political life as a result of the 73rd and 74th amendments to the Indian Constitution which promulgated that one third of the seats in local councils, both urban and rural—the gram Panchayats (GP)—be allotted to women. The Indian experience with local government as a result of the constitutional amendments reserved one third of the seats in local assemblies, the Panchayati Raj, to women thereby sweeping almost one million women into elective politics throughout the country and transforming the face of local government politics in India.

Discussion topics:

• Do women have equal opportunities to lead?
• Strengths and weaknesses of the quota: how do you address the question that quotas may seem to view women as symbolic representatives at the early stages of game:
• Quotas  also may imply that politicians are elected because of their gender, not because of their qualifications, and that more qualified candidates are pushed aside
• Are quotas enough? What more must be done to prepare women for politics?
• Are bottom- up- quotas that first create a critical mass of women at the local government level effective preparation for women to run for national office?

New and Emerging Quotas for Discussion Tunisia Article 16 of Decree-law stipulates that “Candidates shall file their candidacy applications on the basis of parity between men and women. Lists shall be established in such a way to alternate between men and women. Lists that do not follow this principle shall only be admitted when the number of seats, in the relevant constituency is odd”. This provision however does not establish parity in the Tunisian Constituent Assembly. Libya The Coalition of Libyan National Women is calling for a 30 percent quota. Currently the draft National Congress Election Law in Article 2 calls for a 10 percent quota. The Coalition is challenging this provision. Pakistan Under the Conduct of General Elections Order 2002, seats are reserved for women in both the lower house of the parliament (60 of 342 seats, or 17 percent) and in the provincial assemblies (also 17 percent). Thirty three percent of the seats in lower-level councils (union, tehsil, municipality, and district) are reserved for women. Women are elected to the reserved seats in the national parliament and provincial assemblies by a system of proportional representation.  In the general elections of 2002, 12 women won seats in the national parliament from generally contested 8 seats, in addition to the 60 reserved seats, making for a total representation of 72 women out of 342 seats, or 21.1 percent.

3:30 – 5:30 p.m. Group Role Play

Refer To materials in Session 11

Break into groups and develop a plan of action to execute a temporary special measure for women. You can decide whether it should be at the local government or national level. Will it be through Constitutional reform, electoral lists, how do you make sure that women are not at the bottom of the party lists, how do you make sure that women candidates are not mere representatives of their male peers but independent and capable of running for office? What are the challenges you foresee in quotas? How do we overcome those challenges through training, connections to women’s groups and making sure that these candidates represent the concerns of women and men?   What are the other ways you will strategize on advancing women in politics?   What are the incentives that you can provide for political parties to support female candidates? What economic, political and social support do women need to run for office?

6:00 – 8:30 p.m. Dinner: College Club

Delegates will role play and make presentations on group work during dinner. Discussion and role play moderated by delegates 

 

Day Ten – Friday, June 22

ETHICS IN PUBLIC SERVICE

8:30 a.m. Delegates Arrive at Clapp Library

Introduction

Systematic corruption threatens democracy and governance by weakening political institutions and mass participation, and by eroding economic development. Public ethics are a cornerstone of good governance. Ethics reforms have been enacted by many parliaments around the world. Ethics regimes have been adopted by many countries in order to inculcate more ethical behavior among politicians and to rebuild public trust in political institutions.

The United Nations Convention against Corruption of 2005 provides measures for prevention of corruption, with measures directed at both the public and private sectors. These include model preventive policies, such as the establishment of anticorruption bodies and enhanced transparency in the financing of election campaigns and political parties. The Convention also provides for prosecution of corruption.

9:00- 11:00 a.m. Panel Discussion:

Professor Carol Steiker – Carol Steiker is the Henry J. Friendly Professor of Law at Harvard Law School.  She serves as the Dean’s Special Advisor for Public Service and is a faculty affiliate of the Edmond J. Safra Foundation Center for Ethics at Harvard University.

Professor Katherine Marshall – Assistant Professor, Georgetown University, Senior Fellow at Georgetown’s Berkley Center for Religion, Peace and World Affairs and a senior advisor for the World Bank.  A Board Member of IDEA (International Development Ethics Association) and the International Anti-Corruption Advisory Conference (IACC) advisory council.

Honorable Judge Nancy Gertner- Professor of Law, Harvard Law School. Ethics in Public Service and the Judiciary

Moderated by a Delegate

11:00 – 12:00 p.m.

Participants as a group will brainstorm a code of ethics for public service. This code of ethics will have necessary sanctions and a watchdog agency.  Discuss ways in which this watchdog agency can operate. Is it a regional or national watchdog? What are the powers and what are the sanctions that it can apply? Are there gender differences in attitudes towards corruption and unethical practices? Do more women in public service correlate to higher ethical standards?  Will a code of ethics for public servants be a code you would like to see in your country/ community?

Refer to Materials in Session 12

12:00 – 1:30 p.m. Lunch Brackett Reading Room (Library)

KEYNOTE: Honorable Jane Harman, President and CEO of Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and former Congresswoman.  

1:30 – 4:00 p.m. Afternoon Session

THE WAY AHEAD: DEVELOPING A PLATFFORM OF ACTION

Refer to materials in Session 13

The delegates will draft an outcomes document that could be taken back to their communities as a way of follow up action to the work of the WPSP Institute.   This Platform of Action should identify critical strategies, joint action, collaborative and independent initiatives to mainstream women’s leadership.

Discussion to be moderated by two delegates

How can the pilot take a life of its own and endure and grow in the region/s? How do we ensure sustainability and multiplier impact Can the course be replicated and mainstreamed into university or other institutional curricular? Share resource list with programs and networks on women in politics and public service around the world.  We will first get the commitment of these organizations to share reports, materials, networks and other in-kind resources. How to create a platform of action to amplify voices and share ideas and strategies? How to coalesce these efforts into a network? How to create local to global exchanges? How can this network link to existing networks in the region and around the world? How can these existing transnational networks support the nascent network? How to combat the accusation that women’s movements are elite or” westernized”/ How to mine the common aspirations that link women which are stronger than the divisions of region, class or politics? How can we create a clearing house of information?

Some Questions for the Platform of Action

The Platform of Action will help guide participants to identify key areas for advancing women in public service in our communities and countries. The sample categories set out below are not meant to be prescriptive but are a guide to inform our thinking as we map the way forward on a set of shared goals.

Mentoring Programs for Women Leaders in Public Service, including Peer-to Peer Mentoring Programs

These could include strengthening already existing programs or developing innovative initiatives in your department, agency, academic institution, community organization, national, regional and global programs for women in public service. How do we attract younger women to leadership positions?  How do we expand opportunities for others; pass on the torch and mentor the next general of leaders.

Developing Pipelines for Women in Public Service and in Non Traditional Areas of Public Service such as Finance, Economy, Energy, and National Security

These could include broadening programs or developing novel programs in your department, agency, academic institution, community organization, national, regional and global programs for women in public service.

Developing Crucibles of Leadership in our Communities and Countries

How can we work together with existing programs to mutually strengthen our vision of women leading public service? If no such programs exist in your community, how can we build incubators to target young women for public service?  How can courses on leadership be introduced and mainstreamed into university and/or institutional curricular?

Women in Public Service Networks

• ·Identify some of the local, national, regional and global networks you belong to and know of and consider ways of expanding the scope and impact of these networks to advance women in public service.
• ·How would a new network of emerging women leaders forge alliances and strengthen partnerships with existing networks?
• ·How do we remain connected and link with other existing initiatives?

Clearinghouse of Information

How best would you exchange experiences of women in public service and share best practices and strategies with your peers in other communities, countries and regions?

How can we make sure your story inspires women in your community and countries across the world?

Address Unequal Laws and Institutional Barriers:

Unequal laws on equal opportunities, political and public participation, property, land, inheritance, employment, banking, tax, and other laws impede women’s equal access to and leadership in public service and civic participation. Institutional barriers in political party membership can also inhibit leadership opportunities for women.  What are the efforts to address these unequal laws and institutional barriers in your community and country?

How can the network share best practices on law and institutional reform and identify areas for reform and strategies to accelerate reform?

Address Barriers to Public Service: Patriarchy, Gender Bias and Violence

What are the efforts to address patriarchal attitudes, gender bias in the family, dual burden of work/family obligations, tribalism, traditional and cultural biases that impede women’s access to public service? What measures are being taken to ensure that public service is family friendly so men and women can balance public service and family? What steps are being taken to develop gender aware policies such as anti- sexual harassment policies in public service, political parties etc. and address violence, corruption, cronyism and patriarchy in some areas of political and public service?

How do we strengthen these steps? How do we implement such steps?

Special Measures for Women in Public Service

Can you share strategies to advance women in public service and political leadership? These strategies can include financial support, political party support, quotas, temporary special measures, training etc.

How can these measures be strengthened? What training programs would you like to see developed? What should the areas of focus be?

Political, Social, Economic and Cultural Empowerment

Numerous studies show that women in public service and leadership contribute to women’s political, social and economic empowerment and the development outcomes of the community and country. In turn, women’s economic and social empowerment is often a determinant of women’s political empowerment.

Can you identify some concrete examples of the impact of women in public service and how these impacts can be multiplied between and across borders, locally, nationally, regionally and globally?

How can we stay connected and collaborate on shared goals?

Transnational connections and partnerships help us in our journey as women in public service and civic leadership. How do you suggest that we realize this goal?

How do we pass on the torch to other women in public service and how do we inspire a new generation of women in public service?

Other Steps:

4:00 - 5:00 p.m.

Closing Ceremony and Presentation of Diplomas

KEYNOTE: Honorable Jane Harman, President and CEO of Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and former Congresswoman

President H. Kim Bottomly, President of Wellesley College

Farewell comments by Delegates  

6:00 p.m. Reception