Southern Community Women Teach a New Generation Lessons of Leadership for Social Change

Abstract

Service-learning can profoundly alter students' perceptions of leadership, often clouded by negative stereotypes of racial and ethnic, gender, and social-class differences that dis-advantage one group while advantaging another. This article presents findings from a 5-year study conducted at a women's college linking program design to students' perceptions of women's leadership for social justice. Before venturing into community organizations, female students complete a preassessment designed to measure definitions and perceptions of leadership. Students then engage in a program design emphasizing discontinuous experiences. Students also read and respond to multiple, often contradictory texts regarding women's leadership and social change while engaging with female community leaders often of differing racial and ethnic and social-class backgrounds. At semester's end, a postassessment is administered. Although the preand postassessments in this study found no change in students' perceptions of gender differences in leadership effectiveness, their definitions of leadership and their perceptions of women's style of leadership evolved consistently with the program's intent.

Keywords

Atlanta Semester women's leadership social change autoethnographic writing feminist leadership service-learning

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