Femme First Foundation in collaboration with Twitter India ran the #WomenChangemakers In Governance campaign to recognise and highlight women leaders in public office who adopted innovative approaches including the internet, specifically social media and Twitter, thereby making governance more accessible to the public during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Women are Heads of State and Government in only 21 countries worldwide, but their leadership has been lauded for its greater effectiveness in managing the COVID-19 health crisis. Globally it is recognized that the leadership styles of women leaders are more collective than individual, more collaborative than competitive, and more coaching than commanding. There is also established and growing evidence that women’s representation in decision-making processes improves them. Although India is far from attaining gender equity as yet, we have seen and is seeing that women leaders in various levels of government service are not just shouldering the responsibility to contain COVID-19 but are also going the extra mile to ensure the public doesn't suffer despite the challenges put forth by the pandemic.
Our aim was to bring to the fore exceptional women leaders across various arms of the government who have and are currently adopting innovative approaches for better governance; for eg. Healthcare, Police, Administration, Bureaucracy, Judiciary, Legislature, etc. These women were shortlisted through nominations from the public.
The nineteen (19) nominated and shortlisted #WomenChangemakers shared their experiences from their work during COVID, the challenges they faced, and the various empathetic approaches adopted by them to make public service more accessible. As a part of the campaign, we organised Twitter Spaces and Twitter Chats, and also held interviews with some of them individually, broadcasting them on our social media platforms.
