AustLit

'This is a very impressive collection that throws new light on both Australian leadership and the nature of ‘leadership’ itself. The feminist insights driving the project have resulted in the uncovering of much-neglected histories of women’s leadership. They have also led to the editors and authors developing conceptions of leadership that, as Joy Damousi, Mary Tomsic (11–13) and Amanda Sinclair (19–20) point out, go beyond ‘alpha male’ conceptions based on macho, militaristic conceptions of outstanding individuals leading at the front, in order to incorporate alternative leadership attributes such as the importance of facilitating and nurturing the contributions of others. Indeed, as Marian Sawer and Merrindahl Andrew note, some 1970s feminists were initially very wary of the term ‘leadership’, seeing it as an inherently hierarchical and patriarchal conception that discouraged female empowerment and consensual decision-making (283). By contrast, this collection draws on more contemporary views which see leadership as a concept that can be transformed in positive ways, and the editors and contributors rightly argue that the varied forms of women’s leadership are deserving of far more recognition than they have been given so far. Nonetheless, as Jane Elix and Judy Lambert establish, women involved in movements such as the environment movement are still sometimes hesitant to claim leadership status for their outstanding records of activism (305), perhaps partly because of the power relations underlying the way in which some ‘leaders’ behave. ...'