Gladys Brown

International Alliance Building: The Importance of Listening to Global Peers
By Gladys Brown, interim director of Faculty and Staff Affirmative Action at the University of California--Riverside; with Marianne Kriszio, gender equity officer at Humboldt Universitaet in Berlin, Germany; Andrea Lother, deputy director of the Center of Excellence for Women and Science in Bonn, Germany; and Margaret Niger-Thomas, professor of women and gender studies at the University of Buea, Cameroon

When working with women from different countries, how can we create sustainable feminist collaborations that mobilize women’s leadership, build capacity for change, and transform our educational institutions?

The question is complex. For educators, the very idea of international collaboration suggests that our “global village” has shrunk and now more closely resembles a neighborhood of cultures replete with opportunities for teaching. For feminists, the question recognizes that the advancement of women in other countries affects the quality of our own lives. For activists, the question suggests a quiet but insistent belief that we must advocate for women and girls around the globe, working to expand society’s capacity to better serve all women. And for women of color (who happen to also identify as educators, feminists, and activists), the question once again requires us to rethink race and ethnicity, to consider how power plays out in different geographic, historical, and political contexts. Faced with such a complicated question, we find no easy answers.

Yet in spite of the complexity inherent in international multicultural feminist alliances, alliance building contains one certain truth: each person has to create new ways to make alliances happen. There is no foolproof recipe or tested formula. Each collaboration depends on specific contexts, circumstances, and interpersonal relationships. Thus in each new partnership, we must listen to our peers to find ways to work together to form alliances that are mutually affirmative and sustainable.

Women Working Around the Globe

Seeing how complicated international alliance building is, I struggle with the question of how to create feminist international networks that make a difference. I struggle, too, with how to suggest successful alliance building techniques to my colleagues through vehicles like this article. Even an individual who has a long, successful history of this kind of work can speak only from a position informed by her own identities and experiences. In order to surpass some of the limitations of perspective, I turned to three of my collaborators, who shared their thoughts about the circumstances that enhance or impede international ally building within their own countries and institutions. As in any intercultural encounter, listening to the perspectives of others is the key to building successful relationships.

The first of my collaborators is Marianne Kriszio, gender equity officer at Humboldt Universitaet in Berlin, Germany. Dr. Kriszio’s office supports gender equality strategies within the University by identifying problems, proposing strategies, and implementing solutions. Dr. Kriszio also serves as one of five members of the board of the Federal Association of Gender Equity Officers in Higher Education in Germany. Our collaboration began when I was serving as acting director of the Office of Women at the American Council of Education (ACE). We continue to work together through such projects as the 5th European Conference on Gender Equity in Higher Education in Berlin, Germany, which Dr. Kriszio helped to organize and in which I participated.

Andrea Lother, deputy director of the Center of Excellence for Women and Science (CEWS) in Bonn, Germany, is my second collaborator. CEWS is Germany’s national think tank for equal opportunities in science and research, and Dr. Lother monitors and evaluates the progress of women and men in science and advocates for equity. Despite financial constraints that she cites as limitations to international collaborations in Europe, Dr. Lother is currently working to establish the European Platform of Women Scientists, an international network that connects women scientists across Europe and helps their voices to be heard by policymakers. My collaboration with Dr. Lother dates back to a workshop on “Women in Academia” at Brandeis University is 2004. We are currently working together to create a new intellectual framework for identifying factors that promote equity and diversity.

My third collaborator is Dr. Margaret Niger-Thomas, provincial delegate of Women’s Empowerment and Family for the South West Province in Cameroon, West Africa and professor of Women and Gender Studies at the University of Buea. Dr. Niger-Thomas coordinates activities to mobilize and empower women and families in economic, social, cultural, legal, and political arenas. In June 2007, she and I collaborated to organize what we hope will be the first of many Intercultural Student Forums in Cameroon with participants from the University of Maryland and Buea University.

Just as I turn to these collaborators when putting together a conference or a publication, I solicited their advice about the kind of information necessary to build successful multicultural alliances with women working in their specific contexts. In response, they told me of a vast diversity in circumstances affecting gender equity around the globe.

Building Capacity for Change

I asked my collaborators, “What must someone from the United States know to successfully engage in multicultural alliance building with women in your country and work situation?” Their answers stressed that the context for multicultural alliances is specific to each country, region, institution, and individual. In each new partnership, collaborators must listen to each other to understand the specific cultural contexts guiding their relationship.

Each collaborator provided some examples of cultural circumstances that heavily influence gender equity work in her country. Dr. Lother and Dr. Kriszio stressed that collaborators must understand that equal opportunity policy in Germany focuses on gender equity and pays little attention to other aspects of difference. Discussions about diversity that include ethnicity, age, and disability are quite new, especially in higher education and in public research institutions. Dr. Kriszio suggested that animated discussion of Turkish and Arab (predominantly Muslim) minorities is ongoing in the public sphere, but this debate tends to overlook higher education policies and rarely intersects with gender. Dr. Lother believes that international contacts must also be aware of the structural differences between U.S. and German political and educational systems.

Describing different cultural conditions in Cameroon, Dr. Niger-Thomas also stressed the need to understand regional differences. U.S. colleagues should be aware of the French and English colonial cultures that operated in Cameroon, which is now bilingual as a result of colonial legacy. Cameroon’s approximately 250 ethnic groups also contribute to the wide range of cultural variation. And those wishing to facilitate feminist alliances within universities in West Africa should know that the University of Buea is the only English speaking university in West Africa that has a women’s and gender studies program.

Ignoring cultural or power dynamics within another country can produce undesirable consequences, and I have managed to avoid some of these by listening to my peers and being attentive to the differences in their cultural contexts. If I didn’t know about the Women’s and Gender Studies Program at the University of Buea, for instance, I would have co-directed a University of Maryland Study Abroad Program in Cameroon with an all-male faculty roster. Now that I know how gender politics operate in Cameroon, I can adjust my assumptions and solicit women faculty through optimal channels to ensure adequate gender representation.  

As they related their own cultural contexts, each of my colleagues relayed the importance of knowing how little you know. I have learned from my colleagues to be aware of the assumptions I am making, and to be prepared to adjust my preconceived notions of multicultural alliance building when my assumptions turn out to be misinformed in transnational contexts. International multicultural alliance building takes effort and commitment, and collaborators must take the time to listen and learn from each other. Learning makes all the difference. It is through learning that we strengthen women’s leadership to change individuals, networks, and institutions. And it is through respectful and responsive listening to the perspectives and experiences of others that we are best prepared to mobilize our learning to improve women’s opportunities for leadership around the globe.

Gladys Brown is a member of the Campus Women Lead Project on Inclusive Excellence. Campus Women Lead believes that women can advance inclusive leadership in higher education institutions by building multicultural alliances. If you want to raise questions on your campus about how to increase engaged education using diversity as a key vehicle for expanding intellectual and practical choices, consider bringing a Campus Women Lead workshop to your campus. For more information, visit our Web site or contact Kathryn Campbell at campbell@aacu.org.