| This study takes a phenomenological and grounded theory approach to the exploration of women's leadership in environmental advocacy organizations, a relatively new but growing phenomenon in the U.S. environmental movement. The findings are drawn from interviews with 12 women who led state-level, nonprofit environmental advocacy organizations across the United States in 2010-2011. The stndy analyzes these leaders' perspectives on what it means to be effective in their roles as organizational and policy leaders and what challenges they face as women leaders in their work. The stndy is relevant to public policy because of the insights it provides on how women's experiences and priorities are shaping the direction of environmental policymaking through their roles as advocacy leaders.;Leadership research shows that dichotomous frameworks such as transformational versus transactional leadership styles often have gender associations. The study reveals that these women incorporate a blend of transformational and transactional leadership approaches, which they believe has made their organizations and their coalitions effective. The study concludes that androgynous leadership approaches are most effective for women and men who lead environmental advocacy organizations. The study also finds that female leaders are setting a collaborative tone for their advocacy organizations, moving away from more antagonistic and polarizing approaches. This has implications for how policymakers work with their organizations, and how effective these organizations are in achieving their policy goals. The study does not directly investigate the integration of race, class, gender, and other identity characteristics into policy agenda setting and leadership approaches, but concludes that the environmental movement still lacks a prominent feminist analysis of its approaches and objectives. The growing number of women leaders and their tendencies toward self-reflection, inclusion, attentiveness to individual and diverse needs, and collaboration might help the environmental movement better integrate those feminist concerns, but likely not without clear goals to that effect and strong organizational buy-in and support. |
