Women's Leadership News | February 2017
Candid Conversations:
Changing Minds, Changing Lives
IWL has a rich tradition of connecting students with women leaders. Our Transforming Lives Women's Leadership Interview Project includes 19 transcripts and documentary films with diverse women leaders from all walks of life. 

We honor Black History Month by featuring the latest edited student interviews with poet and educator, Cheryl Clarke; professor and cultural critic, Brittney Cooper; and filmmaker and professor, June Cross.
How would you define women's leadership and do you think it's important?
Cheryl Clarke:  I see women's leadership from feminist perspectives and politics. Women's leadership keeps women at the center. If women are the on margins, we either, as feminists, bring them to the center, or go to the margins ourselves. Until women are no longer oppressed in the world, you will need women's leadership. And even then you'll need it  - you'll need it, to be vigilant.
What kind of leader would you consider yourself to be? What is your leadership style? 
Brittney Cooper: I'm a collaborative leader. I get a lot of my notions of leadership in what's happening in the current Black Lives Matter movement where we say "Look, we're not a leader of this movement; we're a leader for movement." All people can lead. All folks have something to say. 
We lead based upon our gifts, talents, and skills. In my life, when I've had opportunities to "be a leader," I like doing it with other people. I like rolling around with powerhouse women. That really makes me happy...I do this work because I think feminism can change people's lives. Being anti-racist can change and save people's lives. I see myself as a scholar activist; these things are connected. 
Can you offer us one piece of advice as we are setting up our careers in the media? 
June Cross: Don't be afraid. Try to get as much experience as possible and have faith that it will all work out in the end. I spent my first ten years in agony because I wanted to be a producer and I never thought I was going to get there. Then I started acting like a producer, and I got the title. You think you're never going to get there. It's not about their giving it to you, it's about your claiming the role. Just do the work and have faith. 
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Rutgers University Institute For Women's Leadership  | 848-932-1463 |   iwl.rutgers.edu 
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