This year I had the pleasure of attending Leymah Gbowee’s seminar back in September. Throughout this seminar, Gbowee emphasized the significance of being in tune with your womanhood because it can be a vessel that could globally incite other women to exercise their agency and demand rights and privileges. For instance, Gbowee mentioned that she did some activist work down in Liberia, and she discusses how the collaborative efforts between herself and the other local Liberian women created a space for women who have been sexually harassed or abused. Gbowee’s inclination to help this community of women did not only come from a place of shared nationality, but it came from a place of pathos in regards to the unsolicited experiences that come with being a woman. The ability to create a network that mutually supports and protects women has always been the basis for Gbowee to continue to do the things that she does. This just goes to show that leadership is not just a desired trait, it is a powerful tool that can connect communities and it pushes one to seek the possible change that is wanted by many. Lastly, a key aspect that stuck out to me during this seminar was that Gbowee did not care about being the angry black woman stereotype. Gbowee proudly accepted this stereotype and told us fellow Black Scotties to use that anger as a source of momentum to conduct change and cultivate our selves as leaders. I can definitely say that this seminar was beyond inspiring, it has definitely encouraged me to be a leader who can ground myself in both my blackness and womanhood. Overall, this seminar has been able to teach me to not just tiptoe around spaces but to always claim a space that I enter.
