“What being a leader means is to inspire and empower others around you”: Reflections of a social scientist

Photo credit: Charmain Levy

Prof. Charmain Levy, an eminent scholar of international development studies, feminist studies and social sciences from the Université du Québec en Outaouais, shares her thoughts on successful strategies women may take to advance our rights and opportunities and provides some advice specifically for senior women leaders in academia.

By Charmain Levy with Patricia A. Maurice

15 April 2025, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.15059005 

Recently, I (Patricia) was honored to meet Professor Charmain Levy [1] from the Université du Québec en Outaouais (Canada) while studying Italian in Bologna, Italy.  Upon striking up a conversation, it was clear that we shared similar experiences as senior women leaders in academia and that Prof. Levy is uniquely well suited to provide insight on some key women’s issues.  Charmain Levy, who is a Full Professor in the Dept. of Social Sciences and former Dean of Research, has worked on topics including international development studies and feminist studies, and has published extensively, including the recent “21st Century Feminismo: Movements in Latin America and the Caribbean” (with coeditor Simone Bohn [2]). She kindly agreed to this brief interview to share some of her insights and advice based on her years of research and experience.  

What are some of the most interesting experiences and/or observations you have had specifically in your work on feminist studies?

I think the first thing is the resilience of activists who often find themselves swimming against the tide not only in their professional life, but in their personal and family life as well. This takes a toll on anyone. So, what amazes me is how they find that strength within themselves but also collectively. This involves solidarity and mutual aid among feminists.

Secondly, change takes a lot of time and is often not linear. Take women’s suffrage. In many countries, it took over a hundred years to achieve and even more to become part of democratic culture and society. But it was and still is essential to democracy and social justice. Democracy grew and broadened thanks to feminism.  The same thing can be said for reproductive rights, violence against women and pay equity. For example, today femicide is recognized as a societal problem both by government and society even though many governments struggle to address its roots.

This is simultaneously depressing but hopeful. It takes so long and there is so much suffering and despair of so many women. But, if feminists keep at it long enough, they do achieve their goals, and this has a very positive impact on their own lives as well as on society. It changes lives.

Based on your research, teaching, and service, do you have a sense of whether the overall trajectory for women’s rights is improving or worsening, worldwide? 

In connection with my last answer, there are some things that are improving and others that are worsening. For example, there are more women students and faculty today than ever before in most countries. Even in male dominated fields, a longitudinal study will demonstrate a progression of the numbers of female students.

That said the increase in student numbers is not necessarily reflected in the quality of their post-secondary experience.  Nor is it clear how much this helps them to improve their livelihood and career prospects with a diploma.

I recently read an article by Celest Davis (Why aren't we talking about the real reason male college enrollment is dropping?) [3] about how the massive inclusion of women in post-secondary education has the effect of a drop in male enrollment and devaluing university education among certain categories of the population in the US. So there is a risk of reproducing social roles in that certain programs such as nursing, education, psychology, social work, human resource management, social sciences, accounting are considered feminine while engineering, computer studies, management, economy, geography are considered masculine. But as said above, women are everywhere. There are just certain disciplines and programs that are less welcoming and supportive. Creating a critical mass of women in these disciplines opens the possibility of creating a tipping point.  

In Canada there was a push to integrate EDI (or DEI) into universities following a supreme court judgement. In the 2000s high level researchers sued the Canadian government because 85% of Canada Research Chairs (CRC) were allotted to men (principally white men). They won and the supreme court ordered universities to achieve specific targets for women, visible minorities, indigenous and disabled awardees. This meant that universities had to rethink not only who they support for a CRC but also who they hire, how to improve female student accessibility to male dominated fields. It also questioned how research is done and from which perspective. Meaning that research isn’t necessarily gender neutral and that a male perspective in all fields is not necessarily inclusive and representative of women’s interests or needs.  

So, I think the fact that professors, department heads and university administrators are thinking about these issues (even if many do not want to) means that we are moving forward. That said, because an administrator is a woman or a visible minority does not mean that they will embrace EDI. Some have the attitude that because they made it, no one else needs help to do so. That is where feminist studies, critical race and decolonial studies, while often labelled ‘controversial’ are extremely useful in identifying and calling out sexism, racism, ablism and white supremacy in general. We should remember that the social sciences in their beginnings over 150 years ago were very sexist, racist, homophobic and colonialist.  

But as mentioned, there is pushback from certain individuals (especially some white males) who feel they have something to lose if someone else has something to gain and that academia is a zero sum game. This reactionary tendency is very strong today and many administrators are taking cover or laying lower hoping it will blow over soon. 

In your research, especially in the political arena, have you observed any actions or strategies the women have taken that have been particularly successful?

Yes, I have. Strategic alliances are very important among feminists in power (either elected, legislative, executive or judicial) with civil society feminists and academics. Struggles are won both within and outside of the state and mainstream politics. They are won with knowledge and with numbers. They are won with creativity to communicate new ideas with the larger population and gain public opinion. Woodward (2004) calls it the “velvet triangle” [4].  

Alliances with other social movements are also important in making society more progressive. That means supporting the LGBTQ+ movement, working with unions, peasant and indigenous movements.  

Intersectionality is also important. It means taking into consideration the multi-dimensional discrimination against women, listening to them, including them in struggles and finding solutions to their collective problems. In my studies and publications, I tend to talk about “feminisms” because there are different groups of women with different histories, needs, and interests. For a long time, white feminism claimed to be universal and this alienated a lot of non-white women because they did not (and many still do not) see themselves as identified with white middle class urban feminists.  

Have you observed any strategies or behaviors that have seemed to be counter-productive or to backfire (for whatever reason)?

Projecting your own values onto others and not taking into consideration other voices. For example, Western women telling Muslim women how to dress and act in the name of feminism. It is still the colonialist idea of the white savior who saves the third world women from themselves. As women in the West, we must combat this mind frame. Paulo Freire said “Nobody liberates anybody else. People liberate themselves together [5].”  

Feminism is about creating the conditions for women’s freedom. Freedom to choose your partner, if you want to get married, if you want to have kids.  

As a senior woman leader in academia who has substantial expertise in feminist studies, do you have any advice for other senior women leaders?  

Similar to my answer concerning the feminist movement, alliances are important. With other colleagues, with students, professors.  Often it is important to create informal spaces where colleagues (whether mixed or just women) can talk. When I was dean, I organized a weekly breakfast or lunch where senior management could just talk. Not everyone showed up every week, but they knew they could come.

Another piece of advice is the pick your battles and when and how to pursue them. I believe in standing up for oneself especially in the face of harassment or intimidation, but it is often difficult to convince colleagues to fight back. The tendency is not to make any waves. So, the how is really important.

Supporting other women, especially minorities in academia, is also really important in terms of empowering them. Which means giving your power away. And I think this is the difference between feminist leadership in academic and traditional male leadership where the goal is to accumulate power for the sake of power.

Is there a topic you would like to see us cover in our blog that might be helpful to senior women leaders in academia?

In the US there is an important backlash against EDI that claims that it lowers the bar. Senior leaders need to demonstrate that EDI does the opposite, it leads to excellence and is essential to advancing knowledge and finding solutions to society’s most important problems. It would be helpful to explore and help diffuse this argument.  

Finally, you have successfully ‘worn many different hats’; what are your plans for the future? 

I would like to continue my research collaborations and projects for the next few years around the urban commons and urban feminist spaces and how both contribute to more inclusive cities and societies. 

I will continue to lecture 3 courses a year and supervise graduate students. I am also on the boards of directors of Oxfam Quebec and the Canadian Federation of Social Sciences and the Humanities (as well as their respective EDI committees) and on the editorial board of the Canadian Journal of Development Studies.

Stepping down from my dean position taught me that one does not have to be in a leadership position to be a leader. What being a leader means is to inspire and empower others around you; to lead from the heart which implies developing one’s empathy toward oneself and others.

On a personal note, I am 57 and if I want to make it to my 60s and to retirement, I know I have to take care of myself and more time is needed for this. In this sense, having a life outside academia is important for individual and collective well-being.

Conclusions

Charmain, thank you sincerely for your candid and thought-provoking responses to our questions.  You are reminding us how important it is for senior women academic leaders in different disciplines around the world to keep a dialog flowing, especially in uncertain and challenging times such as these.   

Questions for further thought

·       Have you witnessed first-hand how diversity impacts problem-solving? If so, would you be willing to share your observations?

·       What are you, personally, doing to support other women?

·       What alliances have you made and how are you nurturing them?

References

[1] https://erigal.org/profile/charmain-levy-8.html

[2] Bohn, S. and Levy, C. eds. (2021) Twenty-First-Century Feminismos: Women's Movements in Latin America and the Caribbean (Volume 4) (McGill-Queen’s Studies in Gender, Sexuality, and Social Justice in the Global South), McGill-Queen’s University Press.

[3] https://celestemdavis.substack.com/p/why-boys-dont-go-to-college

[4] Woodward, A.E. (2004) “Chapter 5. Building velvet triangles: gender and informal governance, ” in T. Christiansen and S. Piattoni, eds. Informal Governance in the European Union, Edward Elgar Publishing Limited, UK.

[5] Freire, Paulo. 2017. Pedagogy of the Oppressed. Penguin Modern Classics. London, England: Penguin Classics. (originally published in 1968)