WLP's Workshops Challenge Leadership Stereotypes in Lebanon and Traditional Gender Roles in Uzbek Media

Grassroots Lebanese and Palestinian women activists and representatives of Uzbek media participated in leadership training workshops organized by WLP and our partner organizations. They challenged authoritarian models of leadership and stereotypical portrayals of women in the media. WLP’s Lebanese partner, Machreq/Maghreb Gender Linking and Information Project (MACMAG GLIP), and WLP’s Uzbek partner, the Women’s Resource Center of Tashkent (TWRC), organized the workshops as part of ongoing training programs using the Partnership’s handbook . Participants commented that the workshop experience enabled them to discover their own leadership abilities, analyze current political trends, and share experiences on ways of challenging the status quo within their communities.

MACMAG GLIP, which creates grassroots networks that promote gender awareness and organizational capacity-building across the Middle East and North Africa, convened a workshop from November 5-12, 2002 with 20 Lebanese and Palestinian activists and NGO representatives. Using Leading to Choices, participants honed their negotiation and communication skills, and focused on understanding and appreciating diversity.

The presence of five men at the workshop resulted in dynamic discussions about women’s leadership styles and their role in society and politics. Defining leadership in terms of political power, wealth, land ownership, social standing, and other traditionally authoritarian views of leadership, the men began the workshop believing that, in general, women are not capable of taking on leadership roles. To challenge this perspective of leadership, the women participants came together to achieve a common goal: to show the men that women are effective leaders in social, economic, and political spheres. In addition to WLP’s handbook Leading to Choices, they used stories of women’s rights advocates, women leaders in the community, and women parliamentarians to illustrate that women are as capable of being effective leaders as men. As the workshop progressed the men began to rethink their theories about leadership and became more aware of the participatory, inclusive leadership styles employed by women leaders throughout their community. The leadership training was particularly empowering for women participants. One young woman stated, “This workshop showed me that I can think for myself, speak for myself, and care for myself. I have resolved to pursue my own ideas and dreams.”

WLP’s partner in Uzbekistan, TWRC, implements programs to help empower women socially and economically, to raise public awareness of women’s human rights, and to promote greater political participation for women within Uzbekistan. From November 11 to December 5, 2002, TWRC organized a workshop for 25 leading representatives of broadcast and print media as a forum for participants to discuss challenges to women’s empowerment and democratic development in Uzbekistan.

Journalists and editors who took part in the workshop argued that there is a growing trend towards reinforcing traditional gender roles through Uzbek media. Discussing Uzbek TV programs and advertisements, they noted that it is increasingly common for women to be depicted wearing a head scarf, caring for children, cleaning and cooking at home, and being obedient to their husbands. Images of independent and self-sufficient women with careers are rare and there is a notable rise in the number of articles and radio programs reinforcing the primacy of women’s domestic role. Participants used sessions and exercises from WLP’s handbook Leading to Choices to analyze changing trends within Uzbek media and to learn new advocacy strategies to stop human rights violations, elminate violence against women, and work against the growth of fundamentalist movements within Uzbekistan. TWRC representatives were invited to participate in a live radio program organized by one of the workshop participants where they discussed women’s rights and gender equality in the context of the growing trend toward traditionalism within Uzbekistan. In coming months, other journalists who took part in the training workshop plan to work with TWRC to develop a series of programs focused on women’s rights and leadership.