One focus of the 2017-18 Rotary Year has been women’s empowerment. Carol Horner was asked to lead us through a visioning process to better understand how the district can be welcoming and empowering for women. She used a process called Appreciative Inquiry to help us explore the club environments that help women feel welcome and enable them to comfortably take on leadership roles.
I feel we do many things right in our district and have some very strong women leaders in clubs and the district. None-the-less the proportion of women to men in our district is around 30%. For Rotary International about 22% of membership is female.
At Carol’s behest we solicited volunteers to interview women and some men in our district. The volunteers were both male and female. The questions were designed to focus on the positive including high points in Rotary, what participants valued about their involvement in Rotary, What they saw as Rotary’s contribution to society, what Rotary looks like at its best, etc. There is so much data it is hard to synthesize it all but I will share some highlights.
What is attractive: Networking for business, service projects, connections generally and among women, the opportunity to serve, the chance to demonstrate leadership ability, the chance to network, the feeling of involvement, social events where people can get to know each other better.
Highpoints included: I love the spirit of the group, being selected as President of my club, RYLA, being recognized for a presentation to a group that was well done, the fellowship, dispensing a polio vaccine, being thanked by a homeless person for a meal, RLI and the transferable skills I acquired.
Core Factors: The sense of community that results from relationships, being able to “give back” to further the common good of community, the variety of members, being respected for our responsible and accountable service, people coming together across political, and religious boundaries, making a difference, celebrating successes.
Value the most: Our foundation and its contribution to the community, being among true movers and shakers in my club, the ability to collaborate on projects, the determination to see things through, educating our membership and the community, being a positive force, polio eradication, bringing more young people into Rotary.
Three wishes: Build greater awareness of what women can do, more focus on events that are attractive to women (family centric), Female leadership at the highest levels, it takes too long to reach the highest levels of Rotary International, better mentoring of new members, more engagement of members in clubs.
Promotion Ideas: The time commitment can be large, so streamline necessary tasks, more community awareness of Rotary and its desire to involve more women, support women in leadership roles, more women focused events, use RLI to promote opportunities for leadership to women, partner with MBA programs, actively recruit women and people of color, hold networking events.
This list is by no means all inclusive. At district conference we will be stressing some of the key concepts that seemed to evolve from this process. We all felt that the effort to involve more women in Rotary must be addressed at the club, district, zone and international level and must appeal to the varying interests, values, strengths and goals of female members and member prospects.
Thank you Carol for your leadership through this process.