Dr. Anna Kalbarczyk
Associate Scientist, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
Anna Kalbarczyk, DrPH is the founder and Director of the “Emerging Women Leaders in Global Health (EDGE)” Initiative, housed in the Johns Hopkins University Center for Global Health. EDGE maintains a global virtual network of 1700+ emerging women leaders and male allies who share resources, conduct research, and host convenings. She co-directs the Bloomberg School of Public Health’s Gender and Health Summer Institute where she also teaches a course on women’s leadership in global health. Dr. Kalbarczyk is co-PI of a recently launched study to assess the impact of women’s leadership in RMNCAH-N and immunization across sub-Saharan Africa. She is an implementation scientist by training and gender specialist.
All Sessions by Dr. Anna Kalbarczyk
Allyship in Action: Driving Women's Leadership Collectively
Led By: John Hopkins University.
An emerging body of evidence suggests that allies, particularly male allies, have a crucial role in dismantling systems that perpetuate disadvantage towards women leaders. A recent national study conducted by Promundo found that “most men want to be allies for gender equality, and many think they already are – but women aren’t convinced. It’s time for men to close this ‘allyship’ gap and move from intention to thoughtful action”. Women can also support each other through allyship, though men are more often in positions of power and privilege.
While allyship is increasingly promoted as a tool to support diversity, equity, and inclusion in the workplace, there is limited guidance on what allyship looks like specifically for advancing women’s leadership globally, and how to foster it within our organizations. Most current advice on the topic is vague at best, and unhelpful or frustrating at worst. Harvard Business Review suggests “taking the temperature”, and “look for patterns” as ways to identify male allies; Deloitte suggests allies should “lead with courage and compassion”. This type of advice can leave allies wondering what they can really do to advance women’s leadership.
This workshop seeks to share and generate tangible and applicable approaches to fostering allyship for women’s leadership in global health. We will do this by exploring organizational entry points where allyship can impact women’s leadership and brainstorming strategies in small groups. Entry points for allyship will be defined as enabling/enhancing organizational factors for women’s leadership. Allyship can and should occur at multiple levels: interpersonal (e.g., mentorship, sponsorship), public (e.g., sponsoring women in public, calling out if a woman was interrupted in a meeting), and systemic (e.g., equal pay, equitable workplace policies).
[Workshop] Disrupting Harmful Narratives: Gender Transformative Leadership Skills
Led by: John Hopkins University.
Organizations perpetuate harmful narratives which disproportionately disadvantage women. Disrupting harmful narratives is gender transformational. These narratives include:
· Emotions should be separated from work.
· Conflict is negative and we should avoid it.
· You must negotiate.
· You must be authentically a woman or authentically a leader – but you cannot be both.
· You have imposter syndrome.
Gender-responsive, transformative leadership strives to mainstream gender into the “process of assessing the implications for women and men of any planned action, in all areas and at all levels”. It’s not just about achieving gender equality, but also about equipping women and men with the tools to change the narrative and challenge and change inequitable systems and structures.
This workshop seeks to address these harmful narratives and asks participants to consider alternatives which they can incorporate into their own leadership, now. Since women’s leadership initiatives shouldn’t be about ‘fixing women’ but rather ‘transforming harmful systems’ - we start this workshop there. We aren’t equipping women with skills to help them conform, but rather, to dismantle oppressive organizational systems. The approach will also provide for context-specific lenses. Participants will first be asked to assess what isn’t working for them, in their context, in their organizations. Not everything is equally transformative (or feasible) in every space.
While all conference participants are welcome, this session might be particularly useful for emerging women leaders and male allies.
The workshop will include brief presentations and practical demonstrations. Participants will break into groups of two or three to role play, practice, and apply new strategies to different narratives. The session will conclude with a reflection period, providing space for participants to share their experiences and insights, and brainstorm ways to integrate new ideas into their leadership moving forward.
Facilitators
1. Dr. Anna Kalbarczyk, Associate Scientist, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
2. Dr. Rosemary Morgan, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
3. Dr. Mehr Manzoor, Founder & CEO, BeyondParity; DEIA Consultant, EnCompass LLC
4. Dr Choolwe Nkwemu Jacobs, Country Lead - Women in Global Health Zambia
5. Meagan Harrison, Research Associate II, Johns Hopkins Center for Global Health