To understand how the women involved in the
projects understood and exercised leadership
– and how the grants supported this – five
projects were selected as case studies.
Together, the case studies suggest that the
women saw their leadership as a way of ‘giving
back’ to the community by sharing the new
skills and knowledge they had gained while
studying on Award in Australia. This sentiment
was linked to social obligations and Pacific
cultural values of sharing resources, caring
for others, and contributing to the good of the
wider community.
The women also took a ‘shared leadership’
approach to their projects, supporting each
other, taking mutual responsibility for work,
holding each other to account, and making
decisions together.
This focus on the relational and collective
aspects of leadership helped them to agree
on and pursue their shared goals. The women
used their personal and professional networks
to access expertise and resources and
promote the sustainability of their projects.
They also sought links with government
agencies and non-government organisations
to expand their access to communities and
provide them with credibility.
Exercising leadership required the women
to navigate social and cultural norms in the
communities in which they were working.
This was new and challenging for many women
and required them to be culturally agile to
create trust and establish credibility.
At times, however, there were tensions
between the women’s role as leaders and
social and cultural perceptions about
leadership. Being a highly educated woman
also created social pressures from families
and communities at times. The women
involved in the projects also navigated gender
norms, including by making strategic choices
about the issues they chose to address and
how they framed their leadership roles.