Language, Gender and Leadership Network

语言、性别和领导能力网络将通过确定妇女和女童面临的主要挑战，加强经济发展和妇女和女童的福利，使她们成为非洲及其他地区成功的一代商界和政界领袖。该网络的创建将为学者、政策制定者、非政府组织、慈善机构和其他利益攸关方提供一个创新的机会，通过关注叙述性生活史的社会语言学，专注于作为LMIC商业和政治领袖取得成功所需的核心沟通技能。该网络的一项基本原则是将妇女和女孩的声音和故事放在其核心位置。这些叙述将侧重于青春期、成年期早期和成年后期，并汇集妇女和女孩讲述的关于她们的性别认同的故事，以调查紧急模式，在那里可以分析关于语言、性别认同和领导力的关键信息。我们的目标是告知和影响政策制定者目前面临的基于性别的不平等挑战，同时使妇女和女孩社区具备在未来领导职位上取得成功所需的抱负、榜样和信念。我们的目标与联合国《2030年可持续发展议程》、世界人道主义峰会和联合国妇女在发展中的作用世界调查(WSRWiD 2014)确定的在国际发展中实现可持续变化的关键标准保持一致：如果要实现可持续发展和性别平等，研究和干预措施必须包括妇女作为领导者和决策者在其社会中的平等参与。传播是衡量和实现合法参与公共领域的一种基本方式。如果不最大限度地发挥妇女和女童在企业和政治中的潜力，就不会有可持续的经济发展。该网络最初的重点是来自乌干达和肯尼亚的叙述，这两个国家都接受了官方发展援助，而且该网络的核心成员已经在城市和农村社区建立了良好的联系，那里已经存在叙述数据采集。然后，我们将重点转向泛非洲视角。将开发一个全球可访问的互动网站，接受官方发展援助资金的非洲和其他全球国家的参与者将能够加入并积极参与在线社区，上传他们自己的叙述，以分享经验，成为同行的支持者、榜样、导师和相互启发的榜样。长期的遗产将是生产一种独特的、可持续的数字研究工具。此外，为了解决那些生活在目前没有电或互联网接入的偏远社区的人，该网络将共同创建以戏剧为基础的培训干预措施，并与妇女和女孩本人一起编写一本图形化的叙事故事书。然后，我们的项目合作伙伴、社会转型研究所和致力于解决农村社区性别不平等问题的其他慈善机构、非政府组织和专业组织将使用这些工具作为赋权和鼓舞人心的工具。由此产生的网站和资源将成为一个独特的语料库，其中包括妇女和女孩的口述生活史叙述，从那些已经成功担任领导职务并拥有强大领导声誉的人，到学校的青春期女孩，她们可能是未来的领导者，具有适当的赋权、教育和培训水平。这种做法使以前被边缘化和沉默的声音能够被听到，并被置于网络的中心。我们的调查结果还将被用作影响决策和为决策提供信息的资源，通过该网络在联合国妇女署非洲办事处的联系，以及我们的项目顾问作为政策制定者和泛非贸易与影响小组和非洲领导网络的成员的作用。

The Language, Gender and Leadership Network will enhance economic development and the welfare of women and girls in LMICs by identifying the key challenges facing them in order for them to become a successful generation of leaders in businesses and politics in Africa and beyond. The Network's creation will provide an innovative opportunity for academics, policy makers, NGOs, charities and other stakeholders to focus on the core communicative skills required to succeed as leaders in businesses and politics in LMICs, through a focus on the sociolinguistics of narrative life histories. A foundational principle of the Network is to place the voices and stories of women and girls at its core. The narratives that will be focused upon span adolescence, early adulthood and later adulthood and bring together stories told by women and girls about their gender identities to investigate emergent patterns, where key information regarding language, gender identity and leadership can be analysed. We aim to inform and influence policy makers of the gender-based inequality challenges currently being faced, alongside equipping communities of women and girls with the aspirations, role-models and beliefs required to succeed in future leadership positions. Our goals align with key criteria for bringing sustainable change in international development, identified by the UN's Sustainable Development Agenda 2030, the World Humanitarian Summit and UN Women's World Survey on the Role of Women in Development (WSRWiD 2014): if sustainable development and gender equality are ever to be achieved, research and interventions are required to embrace women's equal participation as leaders and decision-makers within their societies. Communication is a fundamental way in which legitimate participation in public domains is measured and achieved. Without maximizing the potential of its women and girls within businesses and politics, sustainable economic development will not result.The Network's initial focus is upon narratives from Uganda and Kenya, both in receipt of ODA, and where core members of the Network already have well-established links across both urban and rural communities, where narrative data capture already exists. We then shift our focus to a pan-African perspective. An interactive, globally accessible website will be developed, where participants from Africa and other global countries who receive ODA funding will be able to join and actively engage in online communities by uploading their own narratives to share experiences, act as peer supporters, role models, mentors and figures of inspiration for each other. The long-term legacy will be the production of a unique, sustainable digital research tool. Alongside this, to address those living in remote communities currently without electricity or Internet acccess, the network will co-create drama-based training interventions and a graphic narrative 'storybook' with women and girls themselves. These will then be used as empowerment and inspirational tools by our Project Partner, The Institute of Social Transformation and other charities, NGOs and professional organisations working on addressing gender inequalities in rural communities.The resultant website and resources will be a unique corpus of oral life-history narratives from women and girls ranging from those who have already succeeded in leadership positions and have strong leadership reputations, through to adolescent girls in schools who could be future leaders with the right levels of empowerment, education and training. This approach enables previously marginalized and silenced voices to be heard and placed at the centre of the Network. Our findings will also be used as a resource to influence and inform policy-making decisions, through the network's contacts at UN Women Africa and through our Project Consultant's role as policy maker and member of the pan-African Trade & Impact Group and the African Leadership Network.