Adelaide Women's Leadership

There is a version of leadership in Adelaide that I think is incredibly special. It's a version of leadership that isn't written down and you won't find it in modern management theories (although perhaps it ought to be).

Adelaide women's leadership is the kind that truly does change the world. It's unique and it is special and it gets things done. It's not polarising or radical, it's collaborative and empowering. It's a version of leadership that transcends boundaries and time, training up each new generation of leaders and slowly sharing the secrets through working together. It's deeply embedded in service, sometimes in religion, always open and welcoming.

Our institutions and our networks and our systems go back a long way, including a broad church of women from all sorts of backgrounds, places and networks. It's just how we do things here and although we could always do a better job, we should be proud of our systems and how they try to be different to the models of leadership that are more common, partisan and hierarchical. Adelaide women have a long history of working together, across boundaries and learning from others. Could we continue to better to include more voices and perspectives? Absolutely yes. That's the ultimate goal.

It's not surprising that women like Mary Colton thought to embed their practice through organisations and structures to sustain it over time. One of those organisations was the YWCA of Adelaide.

The Y as it is more commonly known has been an important organisation in the history of South Australia and in the development of global women's leadership. The Y was founded by Mary Colton back in 1884, well before women got the right to vote or stand for parliament. Generations of young women have been assisted in their leadership in one way or another by the YWCA, with particular periods standing out as times when Adelaide has been the driving force in women's leadership worldwide.

Over the past 30 years there has been so much that has changed that many people, including me, have wondered what role organisations like the Y have. I have sat around tables many times in my life as older women leaders have said to me time and time again 'they are important! They need to be saved!'. They assured my that I would miss them when they were gone.

I did put my hand up a few times to try to keep the Y going. I even took on the board once in a legal challenge, proving myself correct and then promptly resigning. The challenge of getting on the board through conflict left a bitter taste in my mouth and I was just as disappointed in my own behaviour in resolving the issue through fighting as in the terrible counting of the votes done by someone who hadn't spent their formative years learning the ins and outs of Hare Clark. I might have been correct, but that didn't make me right.

But the Y was always there, always ready to teach young women the ways of Adelaide women's leadership. The part where we know collaboration with others different to us is more important than being right.

It was there until it wasn't. It's not there anymore.

I returned from maternity leave assuming it would still be around. I'd started a new program for young women and I wanted to connect them with the services and opportunities provided by the Y. I started looking around, making some phone calls.

Technically there is a national organisation called the YWCA that still owns some property in South Australia. That property is being turned into affordable housing and there are few that would deny the need for that right now. The leadership part however is missing. It's been replaced with a national body and right now there are no local representatives, no local programs for young women.

The website says that there are plans to do some work for young women leaders, but there's no detail of that happening any time soon. I do understand the challenges that the board probably went through. Government funding drying up, corporate sponsors being few and far between and individual members on the decline. The organisation and the institution probably needed a deep refresh, but the need is very much still there.

How do we train up the next generation of Adelaide women leaders? How do we train young women in the methods of collaboration with others, often across the political and social divide? How do we train young women to genuinely work together across class, race, sexuality and religious belief? How do we empower them to understand that they have a right to not just be there, but to work in their own ways, the ways that help to also empower others to shine?

Those older women were right - I miss it now it is gone.

Do I want it back? In the same way it was before? I'm not sure. I mean, I did end up trying to resolve a dispute through a lawyer which isn't necessarily the best indictment of the effectiveness of a membership based organisation. In the grand scheme of things though, the last few years were a small fraction of the work that was done, the leadership that came out of it.

Maybe it does need to come back? Maybe we need something new? An organisation to support the next generation of Adelaide young women, designed for 2023 and not 1884?

Whatever it is, I'd like to help get it started and I can't do it alone. It needs a collaboration to bring young women together across class, racial, political and religious divides. It needs new energy and a shared commitment to empowerment.

If you'd like to help, please get in touch at georgia@yupyup.com.au . I promise I won't send you a letter from a lawyer. It's not my best leadership moment. I will teach you how to count Hare Clark though if you don't know how - every woman should know how to count a ballot. It's important.

Dr Tara Bates and I at an IWD Rally, me 7 months pregnant, holding banners that I think were made by the YWCA. Photo credit: The Honourable Steph Key aka one of the best Ministers for Women that SA has ever had.