Every November, political and community leaders from around the world bundle up and head to Reykjavík, Iceland, for the annual Reykjavík Global Forum on women’s representation and leadership—a beautifully curated, invitation-only opportunity to discuss our world’s most pressing issues, from a woman’s perspective.
This year, I not only had the opportunity to attend but also to sit down for a private conversation with three absolute legends: Mary Robinson, president of Ireland (1990-1997), Dr. Michelle Harrison, CEO of Verian and the Reykjavik Index for Leadership, and Sen. Donna Dasko (Canada). Pull up a chair and join me to hear what these powerhouse women leaders have to say.
Katie Usalis: Good morning! Thank you all so much for your time. I loved what Halla Tómasdóttir, president of Iceland, had to say this morning in her fireside chat with you, Mary. She said, “We need more men who dare to lead like women.” How do you believe women lead differently?
President Mary Robinson: I’m generalizing, but men can tend to be more hierarchical, very interested in strong power, interested in staying in power. … Women tend to be less hierarchical, more discussing how to reach a practical solution. They are very keen that the leadership will make a difference for others, and there’s more of a sense of servant leadership and not necessarily staying long in office. For example, I didn’t stay a second term because I felt I opened up the office, I’d created much more relevance to the presidency and then handed it over to somebody else to build on.
Sen. Donna Dasko: There has been a fair bit of research to show that women tend to be more consensual and tend to work together more so than men. I think that is the way leadership is evolving as we move into the future, although right now, when I think about the world, I think we have some really serious challenges with the way the world is unfolding, particularly with the war in Europe and also with the Middle East.
Usalis: If we could close our eyes and envision a work where women are in charge and a society that is more matriarchal than patriarchal, what would be different?
Dr. Michelle Harrison: Can I say I don’t want a matriarchal society? I think the matriarchal will be no better than the patriarchal world. We’re looking for a world where gender isn’t the dominant factor in people’s outcomes, aren’t we? So, I’m not attracted to matriarchy more than I am attracted to patriarchy. I’m attracted to leadership being about the qualities a person brings, not the gender they are.
Robinson: I am very comfortable saying that I believe that if women had a balance of leadership and parity of leadership in our world, the world would be in a much better place.
It is the fact that we have a dominance of male leadership, and it is leadership of one kind without checks and balances. We need that not just in individual top leaders, but we also need cabinets to have parity, which means 50 percent, more or less—also in parliaments, business, right across the board. That’s to me the important thing: that we understand that humanity will be better served if we can combine the leadership, and get inputs from both sides, with balance.
I think we should be thinking more about co-leadership at certain levels. I belong to a group called Global Women Voices and we want to see, for example, the presidency of the General Assembly to either be alternatively woman and man or co-presidents. We want to explore and this idea of the way in which the input of both can be the best solution. Not the dominance of one or the other.
Usalis: One highlight of the forum each year is the release of the Reykjavík Index for Leadership, the first global measure of perceptions of women’s and men’s suitability for positions of leadership across the G7 and more than 40 other countries, covering all continents. I found it fascinating that perceptions of women’s suitability for leadership are going down yearly, especially among young people.
Dr. Harrison, please tell us more about that.
Harrison: It’s only been this year as I’ve really been looking at the data that it occurred to me that the decline in perceptions of women’s leadership is coupled with economic shocks and the rise of populism. So we’ve got real hardship amongst young people, and that will be one of the drivers of the regression we’re seeing in the data.
We do have to keep feeling comfortable with the fact that this is nuanced because we’ve also got one of the most progressive groups of young people that have ever walked the earth. So, if you look at what has encouraged a conservative, populist movement among young people and why that is, we see that somehow the notion of feminism and female leadership has gotten correlated with “life is now harder for young men,” “life is now harder for lower-income men.”
Populists have it easy because they point to a fictional group of people and put the blame on them, and women have gotten caught up in that, along with immigrants and other marginalized groups. We have got to uncouple all of that, which is not easy but it’s every touch point—it’s in schools, it’s in our communities, in civil society, through public policy.
One of the things we need to do a lot more about is show that the gender equality movement is on the side of young people. We need to put our arms around this generation of young people who’ve had real proper hardship and demonstrate again and again that we are on their side. We are not the problem.
Usalis: For my last question, I’d love to close by asking each of you to share something you’d like to say to Ms. readers and feminists in the United States?
Robinson: I feel very much for young women, particularly young feminist women, in the United States at the moment. It must be very bleak and very lonely, and they must feel very angry. I believe it is going to be very important to find ways to bridge the wide, unreal gap that has opened up. We need to get out of the individualism into how we become better people because we’re thinking more about others. I really feel for women generally in the United States at the moment, and I can imagine the anger, the hurt, the everything. I’m giving a collective hug to literally all of your readers. It’s hard, but we have to look forward to finding a sharing together. That will bring us closer.
Harrison: Just keep going. When I looked around that room today, and saw the power in that room? Twenty years ago, I was walking into rooms where I saw three women out of 100, and that occasionally still happens, but about 10 years ago I stopped needing to count the women in the room. We just keep going. This is a moment. It’s obviously disappointing, but we are in a very specific moment in our social history. We regroup, we hold the line, we understand what’s going on, and we get long-term and strategic like the opposition is.
Dasko: I would say don’t give up, don’t look back. Look forward. There are many ways to make a difference in your communities, in politics, in the private sector, the public sector. There are many ways to make a difference, and I think American institutions are strong. I honestly don’t think that one person can derail an entire country that is built on really solidly democratic institutions like free media, the rule of law, an independent judiciary and strong community organizations. I believe that the country is going to move ahead, though it may be a rocky road.
Usalis: Thank you all so much for joining me and for all the ways you inspire us every day.
TheRepresentWomen team is grateful to be engaging with the Reykjavík Global community. Beyond this opportunity to sit down with Mary, Michelle and Donna, we also hosted women members of Congress at this year’s Forum who participated in a rich panel discussion, co-hosted by Running Start, on Solutions to Advance Women’s Representation and Leadership. We were thrilled to be able to bring U.S. women leaders to the table, as we hope to deepen the connections among American lawmakers and thought leaders with global advocates for women’s leadership. It is clear that now, more than ever, we all must join hands, hearts and minds to learn how to strengthen democracy and build women’s political power the world over.
