This blog highlights the work done by students and participants in Women in Civic Leadership Course. The purpose of this course is to engage women and gender-nonconforming folks in civic leadership and community building. Participants meet, network, and work with women-identifying civic leaders in the London Ontario region, to learn and examine how leaders and influencers see the city from their unique positions as active women active in their communities, and gain insight into the opportunities and barriers facing women in politics. Such leadership is inherently intersectional because women leaders belong to multiple communities defined by such things as identity, issue area, and geography.

The underlying question is what does women’s leadership look like? How and why do women participate in building community-capacity and make change to enhance the everyday lives in their cities and towns? What are the interactions between women civic leaders and the contexts in which they lead? How does women’s leadership derive from their purposeful pursuit in advocating and making change in and for their communities.