WODIL 2022: Women Advancing Education and Policy: Monica Bassili
This June, the World Diversity in Leadership Conference will be taking place to advance innovation and entrepreneurship. The Center for Intellectual Excellence organizes the conference to promote and empower diverse leaders to share their ideas with a broader audience. In doing so, the conference highlights the exceptional work of various community leaders within and outside their communities.
To a young, racialized woman, the prospect of attending or taking part as a panellist or presenter at WODIL 2022 is daunting at best. Ultimately, the professional sphere is something many people who exist within the edges of dominant society see as unattainable. In turn, self-doubt is a barrier to engaging in professional and personal growth.
Imposter Syndrome?
One common trope is to call women who seemingly undervalue their work and, their potential is to medicalize their feelings and call it imposter syndrome. Imposter syndrome is loosely defined as doubting one’s abilities and feeling like a fraud. Further, imposter syndrome categorizes feelings of professional uncertainty as a ‘syndrome’ in need of support.
It disproportionately affects high-achieving people, who find it difficult to accept their accomplishments. First, however, it is essential to note what conditions result in women predominantly feeling as if their achievements are less valuable than their counterparts?
For example, class, race, ethnicity, and sexual orientation do not produce the same outcomes for women. In this sense, it is essential to view women’s professional engagement as enmeshed within existing social, political, and economic structures.
Walking into the workplace, what do you see? How do you feel?
Depending on your environment, your outcomes are influenced by the structures already in place. For this reason, systemic racism, classism, xenophobia, and other biases affect how individuals perceive themselves. Therefore, utilizing a pseudo-medical term to categorize people who feel unsure about their accomplishments reduces the validity of environmental factors that influence human emotions.
Within workplaces, there are explicit and implicit hierarchies. For example, suppose all previous managers were white men. In that case, it is natural to assume that to fill the next manager position; it is valuable to use past manager resumes envisioning what the company wants from their future manager. However, the value in accumulating resumes from past managers reinforces a homogenous vision of how the company’s management should be.
For this reason, companies and organizations cannot reduce diversity and inclusion to basic hiring practices. In this way, meaningful engagement with women, racialized people, LGBTQ2+ people, and religious minorities is a powerful practice to realize the full potential of diversity.
What It Means to Take Part in WODIL 2022
For me, taking part in this year’s conference is a turning point – personally, professionally, and as a member of my community. Five years ago, I would have never assumed I would accomplish anything worth sharing at a conference. Engaging in authentic diversity and inclusion work such as WODIL provides a necessary opportunity for racialized and marginalized community members to have their voices heard.
Specifically, the conference offers the chance for a deeper analysis of social inequalities and racial violence. The conference is an open, generative space to have challenging and often uncomfortable conversations by empowering historically silenced voices. In doing so, all conference participants can engage in discussions that may not have occurred elsewhere.
Why WODIL Matters
The creation of WODIL is inherently multicultural, multiethnic, multireligious and open to diverse expressions of education and policy developments. In this sense, WODIL is valuable to engage with diverse perspectives and experiences. Further, Mrs. Hilda Fankah- Arthur, the Center for Intellectual Excellence founder, affirms WODIL’s purpose as advancing people’s work from diverse backgrounds.
Especially in Edmonton, it is challenging for marginalized and racialized people to engage in professional development. A long history of racial and colonial violence continues to impact our communities. In response, the Center for Intellectual Excellence and the annual WODIL conference serves as an accessible platform for diverse education and policy discussions.
Please see WODIL 2022 | Diversity, Inclusion and Equity with Hilda Fankah- Arthur for more information.
Monica Bassili is a final year student at the University of Alberta. She writes a weekly column for Ladiescorner.ca
