Women have a responsibility towards other women; motivated by this reality the International Black Women’s Leadership Program has developed a research project about how we , as black women, can accomplish our responsibility towards other black women. What common challenges do we face? What can we teach and learn from each other? What kind of networking capacities can we create to enhance the work we do? As black women, we believe black women in developed countries, such as America have an enormous role and responsibility to both empower and up-lift black women in the developing world.
We want to discover exactly what the women of East Africa are doing relative to leadership in business, education, and the community and how their innovations and skills can be developed and shared with other women in other parts of the world. Hence, through our inter-action and research in East Africa we will be a catalyst and source of transformation both in Africa and in the United States.
Through our research and several think-tanks discussions, IBWL was established in 2007. To live in and to make a better world for all we need to empower women who will make a difference and will bring about change. When women are truly empowered, they experience a practical personal empowerment, personal exploration and relevant training which leads to a broader analysis of the social, cultural, religious, political and economic roots of gender inequalities and advocacy strategies for women. Without long term vision women easily become the victims of backlash by men or their own internalized fears, which can undermine or even destroy the gains they have made. For this reason, the International Black Women’s Leadership Program seeks to empower women by learning from their everyday experiences therefore understanding the pathways of empowerment that women are already taking for themselves.
Black women in developed countries have the potential to empower women in underdeveloped countries by providing information, training, inspiring options and opportunities to develop their capacity to take advantage of those opportunities. As we begin this research, our goal is to create visible pathways for women to experience what makes change that produces more equity in their relationship with each other and with women in the broader world. Our research will be rooted in the perspectives of women seeking to learn from their daily struggles to make their lives better. By tracing women's pathways to empowerment in a diversity of social, cultural and political contexts, we hope to discover the generic factors that enhance women's empowerment and to understand more about those factors that are context-specific. We will seek out ‘success stories', development interventions that build more equitable social and gender relationships.
St. Cloud State University is an affirmative action/equal opportunity educator and employer.
St. Cloud State University is a member of the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system.
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