Women’s Leadership Development Through Networks of Support: An Analysis of the Women’s Leadership Circles of Vermont

Abstract

A bevy of women’s leadership development programs has emerged in the last few decades to address the difficulties women face to become leaders and to grow in their leadership once they do so. This chapter takes up the question of how to help women become and grow as leaders by exploring the Women’s Leadership Circles of Vermont (WLC) women’s leadership development program. Founded in 2011 and grounded in current research on women’s leadership and leadership development, the WLC is a place-based, cross-sectoral, action-learning program that lays the groundwork for groups of 9–12 women leaders to continue leadership “circles” on their own once the program ends. To date, all four cohorts studied have continued their circles. Analysis of evaluation data shows that the women leaders who participate in the WLC benefit in unexpected and often profound ways from having a strong, local, ongoing circle of women. The circle methodology helps the circles persist, the circles gain deep meaning for their participants, and what happens in the circles supports the growth of participants’ leadership capacities. While the WLC model addresses some of the most challenging issues specific to women in leadership, its results also point to critically important lessons for leadership development in the social sector in general, especially among people who typically have not been reflected in the standard leader image. Leadership development at its best creates meaningful connections, cultivates individual leaders’ determination of what leadership looks like, and provides opportunities for ongoing learning.

Real change begins with the simple act of people talking about what they care about.

—Margaret Wheatley.