Preface

Over a year ago, a man quietly commented after a public showing of "The End of Suburbia," "Where are the women? All of the Peak Oil voices here are men."

I'd noticed that too, and not just in the Peak Oil movement. Everywhere in our culture, women were often in the trenches doing the work, while men were ably articulating what was going on. Men's voices are given more credence. They're the authorities. Women have to be really assertive, and still are usually not given equal credence. I think that perhaps the changes we need to rebuild our communities in the face of peak oil and climate chaos will be the very skills that have been undervalued in our patriarchal, hyper-individualized culture-- women's personal and social skills.

In our travels videotaping Peak Moment Television shows in about a dozen communities this past summer, I saw that some of the most functional relocalization groups were being led by women, or by women and men sharing leadership roles.

I wondered: How could we raise awareness and articulate women's form of leadership and values to rebalance the leadership models in our male-dominated culture? My answer came when I had a Peak Moment conversation with Anne Oliver of Ukiah. A facilitator, coach and mediator, Anne was on the same page. I promptly invited her to facilitate this conversation, which occurred the evening of a day-long networking meeting of northern California Post Carbon and related groups and individuals in September 2006.

Notes from "Women in Peak Oil" conversation
September 30, 2006, San Francisco

Facilitated by Anne Oliver (Ukiah)
Circle of Women
DL: Deborah Lindsay (Pacific Grove)
EB: Ellen Bicheler (Petaluma)
MM: Melissa Moss (Pacifica)
IS: Ingrid Severson (Oakland)
JD: Janaia Donaldson (Nevada City)
RM: Robyn Mallgren (Nevada City) (

This transcription begins partway into Anne's opening remarks. [bracketed text are my edits. JD])

AO: In times of crisis, people tend to regress. When they get scared, they fall back on traditional patterns to feel safe. In times of crisis: we feel we need a man.

When I went to Willits and saw Jason and Brian running WELL, [I wondered where the women were to balance that male leadership.] I coach women wanting to assume power, especially in the political arena.

I think there's a call in the world. The women are gathering. Indigenous women are gathering. What are we being called to do? Where are women's [skills in] relationship being recognized as leadership?

As a professional mediator I notice the best mediators are women. Why? What makes women leaders? What would women's leadership in a progressive movement look like?

Is gender equity going to be a primary value in GULP (Greater Ukiah Localization Project), for example? Interesting that not everybody assumes "of course." If we espouse a return to more organicity, than why wouldn't we have gender equity? The sexes are 50/50, after all.

In the research, almost everything that comes up is rights-based. We need our rights. It's a Victims Story. The story we tell ourselves matters a lot.

Appreciative Inquiry is a way to re-imagine ourselves. Men have traditionally had leadership roles in the public domain; women in private. Where those roles intersect is community. This tends to be where we have the most equity--in public roles like mayors.

The unregulated male impulse is what got us the way we are. The Seneca and Ogananda knew the women were needed to declare war.

What do we see as leadership? What are the models? How do we build it? Not from a Victim position. I think Women's leadership is difficult. All the research on stress hormones and brain activity and instinctual responses in crisis and under stress, was all done on men. When they studied women, they found that oxytocin is also found. Women Tend and Befriend. Men gravitate towards Flight or Fight. Because women haven't had power in the public domain, we've gotten power by linking horizontally. Women have gotten their strength by women grouping together. It's the inclusive, relational way that women are.

So when a woman gets promoted, women are threatened. We take pot shots, get jealous. That woman breaks the mold in a male model. If she rises, she must take special care to keep relationships with the women she's risen above.

What I've been doing with groups of women is to tell each other stories. The narrative mode is more naturally female. Male language is more instrumental [results-oriented]. That's Appreciative Inquiry. How do we do this in a way that isn't reactive? At a recent event, all the awards for selfless awards went to the women. All the great thinking awards went to the men.

Where our attention is and what we gain insight about, is what we're likely to have more of. So what would shared leadership look like in our Peak Oil movement? What are our best experiences of shared leadership? Shared leadership of the kind we want to see in the world. What can we do to make women's leadership normalized in the world?

Deb's Story

Deborah: I do monthly outreach groups. My counterpart is Mark Folsom. He answers all of the very technical questions. (The instrumental questions). I do the inspirational, we-can-do-this mode.

Ellen: Have you talked about that, your roles? Deb: No we haven't talked about it, but afterwards we both feel vitalized. We're never in competition. We give each other space to talk. We agree to disagree but are respectful. Men nod when he talks, women nod when I talk.

Anne: You share equally the space to talk, and offer [information of different types.]

Deb: We're both solid on our understanding of the problem. I heard David Cobb make a presentation, and had a much younger woman speak also. I wanted to uphold the idea of a female and a male presenting; trying to get age difference as well. We haven't broken into the Latino community yet.

Anne: Before we go further, let's clear the center of the table--so the center we hold is clear. (We moved away our books and purses, etc. Anne placed an heirloom tomato at center, and a stone and a grapefruit. Honoring gifts from Mother Earth).

Anne (to all): Working with Deborah's story, what was most compelling to you?

Melissa: It may have been a more intuitive process to create the teamwork.

Deb: It's not just about results, it's also about making it a bigger (personal) experience for everyone involved. It's tiring and rewarding at the same time.

Anne: Notice that in telling her story, then she got closer to what makes for shared leadership.

Melissa: Inclusive.

Robyn: The sense of comfort in both of the roles. Each person's role was fallen into or carefully chosen, but they fit the two players. A naturalness. Each coming from their gift.

Deb: For me, the work of studying peak oil and global warming is so depressing. Lovelock says if the Kyoto protocols go through, we're actually speeding up our global warming. I said to my husband, "We're just managing our process to hell." But finding those little human moments makes it so worthwhile. I had one of those moments today. Somebody said some little thing, and I got "that's why I put on these [Northern California Post Carbon Network quarterly networking meetings].

Janaia: I observe that you are process-oriented, not about results.

Ingrid's Story

Ingrid: It is hard not to be depressed. I'm still processing this kick-off meeting I hosted last week. I've been organizing, gathering interest, checking in with other professionals on this Rooftop project. I sent out a big email to everybody inviting them to this meeting. It was a make-it or break-it moment; I finally had funding for my position.

There were about 15 people, a decent number. [I was] in the leadership role; it's more of a facilitation than "leadership" role. This project is going to be implemented by volunteers. I gave a PowerPoint overview of the project of Roof technologies, then opened it up to the group. I tried to recruit volunteers. I said I was looking for people to research building codes, policies, etc. [and wasn't getting much response.]

So I tossed the ball out and then it occurred to me to form the group as a round, to make a circle, have them say what they were willing to do or what interested them. Everybody wanted to plug in in some way, though not necessarily the one role I had put out.

Anne: What made that a successful example of leadership?

Ingrid: Humility, receptivity to how people want to respond. Get their input before trying to make a lead. I'd had everyone introduce themselves first. Didn't try to shove something done their throat. Got their involvement.

Ellen: Forming the circle. Anne: Not preplanned, it came out of the moment.

Ingrid: Right, like finding light in a dark room.

Deb: You made a shift, and suddenly you had people want to sign on. That was affirming to you.

Anne: I noticed that you were comfortable with ambiguity of not knowing. When they didn't do what you'd first conceived, you saw what needed to happen. You respected their freedom. Gave them an invitation. Out of their own self-interest, they signed up. Like Carolyn Casey: invite them to the opportunity.

Deb: True leadership is quiet and humble.

Melissa: Humility. A trust process.

Anne: If quiet and humble, how does it get recognized as leadership?

Robyn: That's part of the problem: it often doesn't get recognized when it's quiet.

Deb: You have to go in with the intention of being the leader. You can be quiet and humble without being a leader.

Ingrid: I've done things like this before where it's been co-opted, somebody wants the spotlight. It's amazing that this didn't happen. There was a lot of respect in the room. There were strong leaders but they didn't grab the spotlight.

EB: A lot of respect in the room. Your self-respect was there, too.

AO: Your respect for them. Like a leader, you outlined the desired outcome (people understand what was needed). You had an end in mind (people to sign up). You left them free as to the how.

JD: You invited others to participate, not to just do it the way you wanted.

IS: Reminds me of the process Brian Weller & Jason Bradford have done. What to do when someone tries to throw it off.

AO: What did you do?

IS: Presentations help, esp. with a visual. I covered my background. My vision. I set the stage. I felt like a force spoke to me. I actually had stage fright.

AO: I heard competence. You established competence and strength and something to be respected. RM: An inner strength you didn't know you had.

MM: Resourcefulness.

DL: I have to modify the "quiet and humble." I still need approval. If I don't get it, I feel I haven't done well. I like that you were grounding yourself beforehand. A lot of people ground themselves before doing public stuff. I imagine myself as a vessel, energy coming through the top of my head and out of me. And it's about caring so much that you don't care any more. You care so much about the issues you're on that the other (smaller, personal) issues don't work.

AO: So it's not about egolessness. Women's invisibility. What is it about wanting to be recognized--I'd like to be seen?

Janaia's Story

Janaia: I like to be seen for my contribution. I can see that in my role as host in our Peak Moment Television Conversations. I feel like I'm a facilitator, evoking what people want to share. I want to empower them. So our conversation is a conduit, and I'm the director, the navigator. It's a sacred charge. I/we are holding the people. How does that get recognized as leadership? Yes, we [in this room] see this [facilitative] style as leadership. How do we get it articulated as leadership?

DL: It's important to be seen as a leader.

JD: We're trusting the moment. Letting ourselves be spontaneous with whatever comes up.

AO: Notice that these are conversations, not an interview. [In a conversation] we build something together.

JD: Yes, my point of view does show up.

MM: You multi-task. You're thinking of the viewer, the person you're conversing with, and where you are too.

JD: It's a "We" orientation, not a "Me" orientation.

DL: You have multiple objectives, too: motivate listeners, educate listeners, be with the guest, keep the flow, maintain the objective.

JD: How I focus is that we have an outline of what we'll talk about, a basic structure, but I flow with what comes up in the moment, following where the energy is.

AO: What if we got better at articulating about how we're going to work? We're talking about structures that are human, not about controlling but facilitating the Life that wants to happen. The lone model of leadership is male. Women's model of leadership is WE. Fundamentally about WE. It's a big struggle in our country.

DL: In fact, it's THE issue. When we look at the movie "The Power of Community: How Cuba Survived Peak Oil" it was because they were from a WE, not a ME. Going from individualist to collectivist mentality is central.

AO: We don't have a lot of models for what that form of governance looks like. I think it's up to women to recognize and articulate about it.

RM: Janaia is spontaneous. We've talked for years about that's being one of her strengths. I'm impressed by the complexity of all that she was tracking. My sense is that this has come almost naturally, even though she has honed it. A real strength of spontaneity is flexibility, responsiveness to life (what's happening right now).

DL: That's a mother thing. Jumping tracks. Switching modes.

AO: How do we articulate this?

DL: Can we be so bold as to create the Women's Postcarbon Leadership Council? Within our own communities. What I'm doing is forming the new leadership there.

AO: I see lacking in Peak Oil movement is a lack of sophistication about these forms of governance. I see a lot of urgency in this movement, and yet using the old forms.

 DL: Actually what we're doing at Sustainable Monterey County is forming the next city council that'll replace the current structures.

Ellen's Story

EB: A couple of weeks ago I learned our Powerdown Project was going to get to do a workshop at the Community Solutions weekend. I felt panic at first. Were the students really ready? They had just done their presentation at SolFest, and they were very empowered by it. There at the event, I began to panic again. Here were 300 people! Even though our workshop was one of the six breakout groups, ours was the best-attended! We practiced a lot. The students didn't go to the dance. It turned out to be more spontaneous than we'd planned. Once they were doing it, it flowed. They received a lot of info to further them on their project.

AO: What made it shared leadership?

EB: I had to convince myself of my worthiness of my leadership. I knew the students were shaky, not quite ready before we left.

AO: What made the difference?

EB: I feel I had empowered the students that whatever happened was okay. That they were grounded in what they were talking about.

AO: What made their workshop so well-attended?

EB: The students' confidence and networking with a lot of people there.

DL: You really hold those students.

EB: Right afterwards, we came together and the students had a card and gift for me. And I received individual acknowledgments from the students.

AO (to all): What do you hear?

DL: You have to be bold.

AO: I heard the commitment to the students.

JD: You were advocating for the students.

MM: You stayed focused on getting what you needed for help.

AO: We are more powerful in negotiations if we're advocating for others (that comes out in the research on women). This was a step up for you. It's not just about you. It's about WE.

DL: In Peak Oil, we're up to bat for someone else. I'm almost inconsequential. Here we are advocating for the future generations, and the planet.

AO: It's a WE. Part of the WE is "I." " I" don't disappear. I'm part of the WE. In the culture that has championed the culture of individuals, that's a concept that hasn't had primacy.

I also heard that having raised the bar (by going to this event), the students had to work for it. They worked, and yet then some spontaneity could happen in the workshop. You were guided by key principles: networking, empowering.

EB: It's becoming more important to me to be seen. I'm wanting to have my voice, to speak out more. I've been timid in the past. Speaking out more. Shepherd and others in my relocalization group are supporting me.

AO: It's okay to ask for support in assuming more leadership.

EB: I felt empowered by what happened there. It's building momentum.

Robyn's Story

RM: My shared leadership happens to be in Peak Moment Television. I'm jazzed about the relationship the two of us have in pulling this off. Not thought of myself as a leader. I have shied away from anything that smelled like leadership. Here we've each found what we love. Behind the camera I am finding an art form, creativity. Being the person who makes those decisions without drawing on someone else is new to me, or at least being in that position has felt uncomfortable. In this adventure, it feels totally comfortable. I look forward to each challenge: I'm loving it. We each have found roles where there's no conflict. Everything gets covered. A comfortable, sharing co-creativity.

EB: I love "co-creative." That's a wonderful word. (To all) What do you hear?

IS: I hear an unexpected level of comfort with this leadership role.

AO: Reciprocity and mutual support. Informing each other's leadership.

MM: Partnership. Within that sense of security you can tread on each other's territory.

RM: We worked together at Xerox, but there wasn't this sense of partnership.

AO: It's in the service of the Creation.

DL: That form of creation is very special and can be overwhelming to very many people. If you get to that point of power, it's strong.

AO: Isn't that what it's going to take to have the leadership? Where most conflict comes from is "it's my way or it's your way." I can smell in a meeting when somebody has an idea that's premature, that comes instrumental thinking, e.g., assigning volunteers. It comes out of my own idea, it causes a reaction against other egos. You're talking about putting it together in a way that is natural. The [question is] HOW [we put it together in a natural way]: we don't know that.

JD: The pre-structured plan doesn't work.

AO: How do we skim it off the top?

EB: I like your talking about this as an art form.

AO: It frees people to feel like co-creators.

RM: I hide the fact that I hide. And Deb caught that. I like that she saw that part of my truth.

MM: The feminine model. As a woman, I am very curious about people, or about experience. Of course, it's not complete until we've all shared.

Melissa's Story

MM: Like what happened at this community feast last August. Before then, we'd done Life Force Cafe events (all raw foods, etc.) and I'd come home starving. I wanted to have a fun, bustling feast. I partnered with a woman doing an e-coop. This woman and I, it was co-creative, it took off, got bigger and bigger. It snowballed, got bigger and better. Took on a life of its own. On the day of the event, there were volunteers who'd come to previous similar (Life Force Cafe) events. I felt I was getting tested: we were doing it differently from that. One volunteer had "this is how we do it" attitude. I found myself backing down. I let go in that moment. I stayed busy in other areas and let her do things as in the past. It was enough to let happen what we'd given birth to.

AO: What represented the kind of leadership?

MM: Collaboration. People tapping into the concept, letting it build. I love it when everybody's two cents is thrown in. More than just one person.

AO: There was common vision, everybody having their role. Very mother-like role. You respected the life of the event. You let it be alive.

EB: I heard fun, celebratory.

AO: So what are we hearing about women's form of leadership?

* Keep the energy moving, but in a shared direction. Letting go is a big theme.
* Leadership isn't micro-management.
* It's faith-based and informed delegation.
* It's important to know what matters (and what doesn't). That's the basis for negotiation. That way you can give up things that don't matter.
*When you know what matters, you're clear on what is important to you. What you're willing to do and not to do.
*Women are graduating from selfless legwork behind the scenes to acknowledging the worth of our time.

Key Themes
*It's about the WE, and that includes the "I."
*Collaboration, co-creative, the common vision.
*Know what matters.
*Acknowledge and honor value of time.
*Structure with fluidity. (e.g., plant model: there's fluids moving within the structures). Have organizing powerful concepts or frames, clear structure, guiding principles that are living and meaningful. But let things unfold organically. That way there's still freedom.
*Have fun!

Anne: How would you tell people about what we were doing tonight? We're developing on behalf of everyone a more consonant model of leadership in the Post Carbon movement. We are balancing male and female modes. It's

* Articulate shared leadership.
* Nurturing
* Vibrancy.

AO: What's different for you now?

RM: I have a sense of this alternative. I also see that where we hit the wall with one individual is the challenge we face.

JD: I feel nurtured. It's moving towards birthing.

IS: Feels like a becoming.

AO: It was a really living conversation. Very relevant topic to us, and to the world. We are opening and listening.

MM: I'm glad I came. Hopefully I can have a more objective view in my role on a project, encourage another's participation. To rearrange my thoughts about male-style leadership. Thank you, Anne, for shining a light on these--they were already there.

EB: I appreciate your leadership in all this. This is a synergy of all of us. We interlap at different places. This feels like a new territory, a new way of thinking. Exciting!

DL: I still have questions about leadership, and why I'm interested in being a leader. I want to think about the next time we're all together. Maybe we could do something really fun like stay overnight in SF, maybe even be luxurious in our deliberations!

Epilogue

We welcome further discussion on women's contributions to leadership, visioning, and the inner and outer changes needed in our world. We plan to meet in person again probably in the fall of 2007.