The Arc of Peace: Empowering women to re-shape societal dynamics

This session will present a case study of a project working on gender equity for social change. We’ll learn from an initiative where women leaders in organisations have worked with awareness-based systems change methods to build collaboration and develop a shared theory of change, to support women.

15:00–16:30 GMT
Learn about the initiative (plenary).
Generative listening, sensing the deeper leverage points for change.

16:45–18:00 GMT
Reflective space in smaller groups.
Dialogue and individual reflection on what this means for our own work.

In the wake of profound loss, suffering, and division, many societies are asking what kinds of leadership capacities are needed to support healing, resilience, and long-term transformation. This gathering offers a presencing-based inquiry into these questions through the lens of one initiative.

Over the past two years leaders of feminist organisations from diverse communities have engaged in a collaborative process to advance gender equity as a pathway for social change. Guided by Theory U, the initiative focused on cultivating awareness, relational trust, and shared responsibility across diverse organisations, while developing a shared theory of change oriented toward re-balancing participation and influence. The process was sparked by alarm at the erosion of women’s rights and influence during the internal upheaval that is typical in a democracy crisis. It unfolded against the backdrop of war, in recognition that equity and influence for women would be key to securing a future of equity, justice and peace.

Across many societies, leadership cultures shaped by prolonged insecurity and collective trauma tend to privilege control and force, while marginalising capacities such as listening and collaboration. This initiative explores how such relational capacities can be intentionally developed and brought into decision-making spaces as part of a broader process of societal repair.

This session offers a focused learning case that explores how awareness-based systems change and presencing practices are being applied within one complex context, alongside many other initiatives addressing different leverage points for transformation.

Through storytelling, reflective practice, and embodied inquiry, we will together sense into what becomes possible when leadership is grounded in presence and relational responsibility, and to consider how similar approaches might inform our work in different contexts shaped by division, trauma, or polarisation.