Models of leadership have included and progressed from theories of "great men" to a focus on personality style, specific characteristics, interpersonal qualities and skills, and fit of style to situation and workers. Feminism, among other critical theories, holds good potential for inspecting leadership with attention to power, its distribution, and its enactment. The adoption of co- and revolving leadership in early second wave Consciousness Raising groups foreshadowed the discussions today of feminist leadership.

Some work already exists about feminist leadership in groups, community work, management, and teaching, but leadership as a feminist construct and action has yet to be fully developed. The distribution of power and seeking egalitarian relationships are complex goals of feminism that necessitate that we attend not only to gender, but also to other systemic forms of oppression and privilege. The inclusion of varied life experiences and literature reflecting the impact of ethnicity, race, class and gender are especially important in our constructing feminist leadership and considering its practical enactment. The following questions will hopefully begin our discussion.

Core Questions:

• What is feminist leadership?
• Are there important lessons about leadership offered by the experiences of poor women, ethnic minority women and women of color? How do such considerations give new shape and dimensions to our understanding of feminist leadership?
• How do we understand/conceptualize feminist follower-ship and its relation to feminist leadership? How does this understanding contribute to a fuller, more dynamic understanding of the process and meaning of leadership?
• Considering the activism inherent in feminism, what actions are implied (or perhaps demanded) by our rethinking of leadership from a feminist perspective?

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