Creating a Safe Environment for Women’s Leadership Transformation

Abstract

This study used qualitative data to describe how transformational learning was achieved in a women-only training (WOT) program. The article argues that an environment conducive to transformational learning for women was created from the harmonious coalescing of the presence of all-women participants and instructors with gender-sensitive teaching and learning practices. The integration of these elements created safety and participant willingness to break with habitual patterns. This article contributes to the transformational learning and WOT literatures by proposing a holistic explanation for creating safety and fostering women's transformational learning in training settings. It also develops an analytic framework that expands current conceptions of the transformational learning process. Keywordswomen's leadership development, transformational learning, women-only training, creating safe environments As the number of women in all job categories has increased, there has been corresponding interest in cultivating women's leadership talent. Although cultivation of talent requires both organizational and individual change (Hopkins, at Uniwersytet Warszawski on June 15, 2015 jme.sagepub.com Downloaded from

The Leadership Lab for Women: Advancing and Retaining Women in STEM through Professional Development

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Women Leadershipon Public Institution in Muslim Minority Society of West Papua

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Identity Challenges of Women Leaders: Antecedents and Consequences of Identity Interference

“…Several scholars have argued in favor of women-only sessions. For example, Debebe (2011) suggested that such sessions confer a sense of belonging, provide social validation, and are conducive to transformational learning for women by creating an atmosphere of psychological safety. Ely et al (2011: 486) further argue that women-only programs "go beyond teaching women what they need to know and do; they also support women in understanding and shaping who they are and can become."…”