Cleopatra to Clinton: Women & Leadership (HIST10017)

What is leadership? Who can lead? Who can have political power and influence and under what circumstances? Does gender matter? And can women be leaders? These are the key questions that students will interrogate while undertaking this subject.

The role of women in leadership is one of the challenging social and cultural issues of our time. Through case studies of women leaders – from Cleopatra to Clinton – this subject will examine the challenges women have faced historically in exercising leadership and political power. The subject will primarily focus on the history of women leaders in the 20^th and 21^st centuries through looking at examples of women leaders who have effected social and political change in communities and societies locally and globally. Case studies will include women working on Indigenous rights campaigns such as activist and writer Faith Bandler (1918-2015) and activist Aunty Pearl Gibbs (1901-1983). Women’s organisations have featured in leadership activities and the histories of groups will also be considered, such those protesting against state violence, like the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo Argentina and those opposed to nuclear weapons, like Greenham Common Women's Peace Camp, England. The role of women in activist movements to bring about social change will be considered, as well as the extent to which change has occurred for women in the 20^th and 21^st century across the globe.

The history of women leading nations and Empires will also feature in this subject. In this context, some pre-20^th Century case studies will be examined, such as Cleopatra Ancient Egypt (c.69 BCE - 30 BCE), Queen Elizabeth I England (1533 – 1603), Queen Christina of Sweden (1626 - 1689) and Queen Victoria, United Kingdom (1819–1901). Of particular significance is the ways these women as leaders have been remembered through popular culture at specific historical moments. In 2018 less than 15% of countries and territories had elected or appointed women leaders, the majority had never had a woman leader. Why is this so? And what does this mean for how women are considered as leaders?

Underpinning all of the case studies examined are ideas and questions about how definitions of leadership have changed over time, and how ideas about power are socially and culturally constructed.

Classes will be in a 2-hour lecture format with a 1-hour tutorial which will have an interactive focus with activities and discussions, but will include some short lectures and presentations as part of the sessions. The main research project students will undertake in this subject will focus on researching and critically examining a public representation of a women leader or a women’s group.