How We’re Transforming the Culture of Conservation
This story is from Planet Women’s 2022 Mid-Year Report.
Planet Women was created to bring to life a world where the vibrant diversity of Earth’s people collaborate on equal footing to care for the planet. We’re not there yet. However, your support helped us launch two new programs to make strides toward that vision.
100 Women Pathway
Planet Women’s 100 Women Pathway is designed to increase the number of diverse women leaders who are at the helm of the environmental movement. While recent diversity report cards show that women (largely White women) make up more than half of the staff at environmental organizations, women still do not hold an equal share of the most powerful decision-making positions—CEOs, executive directors, board chairs, and c-suite roles.
The 100 Women Pathway brings together women who are already making a big impact on the environmental movement and looking to take the next step in their career journey. Over eight months, participants explore their unique leadership qualities, learn from each other, access coaching and skill-building, and network with executive leaders and recruiters.
In 2021, we asked our network of more than 30 female CEOs to nominate women for the program and they recommended an amazing group of rising leaders. Early on, we spoke with these CEOs to understand their career paths and perspectives on the needs of the next generation of women leaders. Their valuable insights informed our design for the 100 Women Pathway. Many of the CEOs also expressed a desire to engage with fellow women leaders, which inspired Planet Women to host several gatherings this year for women executive directors across the environmental sector. We are thrilled to be able to provide a space for women to build community, discuss pressing issues and share ideas—at every stage of their career.
In April 2022, we kicked off our first 100 Women Pathway cohort with 14 women leaders from the mid-Atlantic region in the United States. Read their bios here! Sessions have covered leadership qualities, storytelling for influence, and mentor matching; and featured powerful speakers like Ebony Twilley-Martin, Co-Executive Director of Greenpeace USA. We are learning from these women too—about where they see obstacles and opportunities for women leaders and how to make this program most effective. One of our takeaways so far: peer connections and support from other women are so important!
“This experience has been really enlightening, inspiring and amazing for me. I’ve been part of different leadership programs, but none focused on women or were led by women. It’s been life changing to meet other women who are dealing with some of the same struggles and who are inspired by the same stories…We’re asking really hard questions of each other to help us get to the deeper parts of ourselves and the deeper parts of this movement.”– Carmera Thomas-Wilhite, 100 Women Pathway, Mid-Atlantic Cohort
The second cohort launched on the West Coast in July 2022. Congratulations to Janet Nguyen and Tiana Lino, our wonderful 100 Women Pathway team, for their hard work getting this off the ground! And thank you so much for supporting Planet Women. Your generosity allows us to offer this at no charge, so that cost is never a barrier to any woman who wants to participate.
100 Women Pathway gathering in West Virginia in May 2022. © Planet Women
Regenerative Leadership Project
At Planet Women, we talk a lot about creating a new paradigm of leadership for the environmental movement. So, what exactly is this paradigm? In the simplest terms, it’s based on a circle of shared power, rather than on a hierarchical pyramid. We strive to become leaders who value reciprocity, respect, collaboration and empathy. Who seek to understand and dismantle systems of oppression that harm us all. This might sound lofty or far from your daily experience of work and life—but we believe that it’s possible!
Our Director of Cultural Transformation, Dr. Liza Keānuenueokalani Williams, has designed a learning journey to help environmental activists and advocates cultivate this kind of leadership in their own lives. It’s called the Regenerative Leadership Project. We just launched our first cohort of 11 participants in May 2022. This isn’t your typical leadership course or DEI training—it’s a little bit of both, with the addition of self-exploration, academic study, creative expression and peer learning. Participants craft their personal definition of how they will embody Regenerative Leadership.
The course is open to anyone in the environmental sphere, of any identity, at any stage of their career. Our first cohort includes people from across the United States, Canada and New Zealand, fostering rich discussions about how we solve environmental issues in a way that decenters whiteness and privilege.
The next two cohorts will kick off in fall 2022. We already have a growing waitlist and requests for this training in other languages and time zones, so we expect that we’ll need to train others to lead this course. We are also discussing publishing Dr. Liza’s course material, so that it can be more widely available. Read more about the course and get notified about applications for future cohorts here.
We’re celebrating Planet Women’s two-year anniversary this month! As you look back at all that’s been accomplished, please help continue the momentum by making a secure donation below.
Your support uplifts women, families, and communities and helps safeguard the precious forests, waters and wildlife that keep Earth’s ecosystems in balance. Thank you so much!