A Necessary Punchline
Starting with the punchline. The joke will come later.
Dr. Alissa Gardenhire
August 31, 2024
Today’s blog is short—just a few sentences worth of ideas—but packed with something vital.
Here’s the punchline (or perhaps it’s a prediction):
A: Men’s desire to avoid accountability and find justification for their actions. Their willingness to codify that in law, social norms, and cultural perceptions of acceptability, using force if necessary.
Write that down somewhere. Stick it in a drawer, maybe your nightstand drawer, under the stuff. We’ll return to it as we move along this Leadership Centered journey, with inquiry, intention, and imagination as the core elements of new leadership for women.
As we dive into the social, economic, and personal challenges our society faces, we’ll keep coming back to this punchline. The Q: might be something along the lines of, “What is the source of X, Y, Z social problem or disparity?”
Once we understand the source and true nature of the problems we face, we can start centering the needs of women and girls, imagining new ways of being, and crafting solutions. But it all starts with inquiry—asking why and searching for answers beneath the illusions society presents about how we live, what we experience, and what it means.
Stay tuned—I’ve got some exciting ideas cooking! And to top it off, I booked my first speaking gig today. Celebrate!
XO,
Alissa
Leadership Centered Framework: Reclaiming Women’s Voices
This process of inquiry into our society’s problems is crucial, particularly when we look at how male-centric systems have been designed to benefit men at the expense of women. Through the lens of Centered Leadership, we are committed to:
Seeking the origins of the problems we face.
Bringing women’s viewpoints and norms into the discussions and decision-making processes.
Dreaming of new ways of being that go beyond inclusion to center women’s needs and leadership.
I’m also working on developing programming around these themes to help women, especially those in leadership, cut through the male-centric mythology that tells us it’s okay that nothing is created for us. We will dismantle this mindset, insist on centering women’s perspectives, and reshape systems to work for all of us.
Women's Voices Must Be Amplified
In the past 24 hours, I’ve realized how often women’s voices are shut down and diminished. I’m grateful to have had the opportunity to speak my mind freely—thanks in part to my Ph.D. and intentional parenting—but not every woman feels empowered this way.
Yet amplifying women’s voices is critical. We can’t expect change if we remain quiet. It takes bravery, confidence, and a thick skin to speak up, especially in environments that push back against our voices. But when we’re silent, those systems—the “they” who have kept us in our place—win.
But who cares what “they” want? They’ve had their turn. They’ve benefited from our silence long enough. Our place is in leadership. Our place is in deciding our fates. And our place is in demanding our due by recognizing our value and insisting that the world do the same.