When leadership often looks like secrecy and fighting to protect power over justice, feminist leadership is different. For YWCA Canada, that means acting with integrity no matter who’s watching, and sharing power, not hoarding it.
Just ahead of International Women’s Day, dozens of feminist leaders gathered in Toronto from YWCA organizations across Canada, from the Northwest Territories to Halifax to Vancouver. The foyer was full of suitcases, with people travelling through snowstorms and flight delays. One woman booked an extra-early morning flight home to avoid driving the long northern highway alone at night – a trip not safe for a woman, not even with a dummy made to look like a male passenger propped next to her.
There were women of all ages and backgrounds; some new leaders and others retiring after decades of service. Conversations moved easily from kids losing baby teeth to others getting married, from hot flashes to the perennial struggle over the proper temperature in the room, from grieving the recent loss of a parent to entire communities in mourning.
One CEO gave out a handwritten note to every person in the room – 30-plus messages of gratitude and recognition.
There were leaders managing HR issues, gender-based-violence programs, employment training, and newcomer supports. They were finalizing wildfire risk plans and land acquisitions while preparing for upcoming meetings with ministers and funders.
The group settled into the relief of being among peers, with others who understood the weight of the invisible labour: hundreds of late hours spent applying for funding, complex reporting requirements, constantly proving that essential services are, in fact, essential.
Much of the agenda centred on housing, and the reality that building homes alone will not solve this crisis. We must invest in the entire ecosystem, including income security, violence prevention, and childcare. When women cannot access affordable childcare, they cannot participate fully in the economy, and housing stability erodes.
The conversation moved to social enterprises, and to restaurants and hotels serving as self-funding revenue streams to fill gaps where traditional funding falls short. The group is unmistakably entrepreneurial – not because it’s trendy, but because it’s necessary.
The leaders in the room reflected on truth and reconciliation as an ongoing practice, discussing Indigenous-led programming and Elders in residence. At the core of this conversation was a commitment to keep building on meaningful action and challenging ourselves to do more.
The dialogue widened to caring for clients and staff. We did our best to represent the needs of the 5,000 staff across the country and hundreds of thousands of service recipients not in the room. How can we better support young staff and board members as they grow their families? How do we transform systems that weren’t created for women without wives at home? How do we avoid replicating the extractive growth models we’re trying to dismantle?
We resisted pouring our energy into the headlines – those that remind us how often powerful people evade accountability, when survivors still fight to be believed. Feminist leadership requires endurance, asking us to stay in the work even when the broader climate feels stacked against us.
What might surprise you is what wasn’t there. There was no competition, no sharp elbows, no male-bashing – just a spirit of engagement and allyship.
If, at moments, a voice shook, it was from the weight of knowing that no matter how hard we work, the need will outpace us. Our ever-expanding wait-lists for gender-based-violence shelters are a haunting reflection of that reality. We acknowledged the toll of the work and savoured the joy of the work. We invested in ourselves. A PhD candidate shared emerging neuroscience on how trauma and chronic stress shape decision-making, and how these insights can help us stay grounded in our values.
And yes, there was a baby in the room, passed from lap to lap, a living reminder that feminist leadership carries both responsibility and hope.
What might surprise you is what wasn’t there. There was no competition, no sharp elbows, no male-bashing – just a spirit of engagement and allyship.
What may also surprise you is how consistent feminist leadership is, whether behind closed doors or in public view. When leadership often looks like secrecy and fighting tooth and nail to protect power over justice, feminist leadership is different. It’s acting with integrity no matter who’s watching, and it’s sharing power, not hoarding it. It’s envisioning what does not yet exist, and then doing the unglamorous, bureaucratic, exhausting work of giving it life.
So, there you have it: feminist leadership up close – transparent, transformative, and nothing to be afraid of.
