This call for abstracts for a book on “Filipina Global Leadership” (working title) builds on the FWN’s 2013 Global 100™ recognition awards. “Filipina Global Leadership”, planned for release in October 2014, is a compilation of narratives and case studies by Filipina leaders based in countries around the world. Key themes to be addressed will include identity (including consanguinity and affinity), migration, gender, and leadership on public policy, advocacy, diplomacy, entrepreneurship and other sectors. A synthesis chapter will pull together key themes and make recommendations for aspiring leaders as well as thought leaders in the field. Most importantly, the book is designed to reach sons, daughters and grandchildren as words of wisdom imparted by lolas and mothers.  

Trigger and Rationale

At the 2013 FWN Global100™ recognition awards, you were honored as one of the 100 Most Influential Filipina Women in the World™. This award comes with the privilege to develop the next generation of Filipina women leaders. You also participated as a Global Leader panel where we established that a book about Filipina Global Leadership would be a desirable next step towards achieving our mission: A Filipina woman leader in every sector of the economy.

Towards this goal, we are now ready to put together a book proposal for Filipina Global Leadership.” See Prosy A. Delacruz’ account of the panel at http://asianjournal.com/lifestyle/fwns-global-leaders-panel-the-creative-genius-of-speaking-expressively/ and photo from the 10th Filipina Global Leadership Summit.

Objective and Target Audience

The book will be useful for people who have current leadership responsibilities with varying degrees of complexity and culture-spanning, for leadership development in the Philippines and beyond, and for teaching leadership in a way that not only informs but also transforms promising leaders into actual leaders.

Moreover, Filipina leadership styles have implications for gender and intercultural leadership research and practice (see Hofstede, 1980 and 1991) and for advancing theories of women and leadership. Understanding how Filipina women bridge the range of Filipino and global cultures will challenge existing theories of multi-culturalism, co-culturation, and global leadership (House et al, 2004, Mendenhall et al, 2013).

The book will look at how Filipinas who have succeeded in the global workplace define who they are (Sino ba sila?) —their “being a leader identity”—and what they are about (Ano ba sila?)—their exercise of leadership. The book will also examine the extent to which Philippine values have underpinned their leadership, and what cultural adjustments were made to succeed beyond the Philippines.

Based on their reflections on their journey from the Philippines to the global workplace, the book will explore such themes as: core identity, the fixed sense of self that underlies their continuously shifting multiple identities as they demonstrate their power and influence; how their Philippine heritage formed their values, their sense of purpose and their outlook on the world; how their experiences beyond home challenged or reinforced their notions of leadership, and how they cope with cognitive dissonance when Philippine traditional beliefs are at odds with the requirements of succeeding in the global workplace.

The book is an individual and collective reflection, and soul-searching by Filipinas who have exercised leadership. The book intends to capture how their spirits have survived, have transformed, have transcended challenges to make the impossible possible in academe, arts, cooking, writing, journalism, politics, governance, enterpreneurship and more.

Related Books

One useful work is The Sage Handbook of Leadership (2011) edited by Bryman and others. Global leadership research has drawn from intercultural communication, expatriation, global management and comparative leadership. More recent studies include the GLOBE study (House, et al, 2004), Global Leadership: Research, Practice and Development (Mendenhall and others, 2013), and Advances in Global Leadership, Volumes 1-7 (1999-2012). These books will be useful in examining the multiple contexts that frame Filipina Global leadership, starting from the Philippines and then moving to the global level—the United States, United Arab Emirates, Japan, China, Afghanistan, Poland, to name but a few countries, and back to the Philippines. 

Moreover, Philippine literature on Sikolohiyang Pilipino (see for example Enriquez 1994, Pe-Pua 2006) and Kapwa (Enriquez 1978) considered critical-emancipatory social science, the work of Babaylan Center “Katutubong Binhi/Native Seeds: Myths and Stories that Feed Our Indigenous Souls, ” NVM Gonzales (see for example Kalutang: A Filipino in the World (1990), and articles, such as “When Servant Becomes Leader: The Corazon C. Aquino Success Story as a Beacon for Business Leaders” in Journal of Business Ethics (August 2013, Volume 116, Issue 2, pp 373-391) are some of our literature building blocks.

Key Themes

The view of Filipina women as successful leaders in the global workplace runs counter to the prevailing narrative based upon the trauma of dislocation undergone by more than eight million overseas contract workers, mostly women (San Juan, 2002). These women are blamed with blurring the distinction between 'Filipino' as the name of a sovereign people and 'Filipino' as the generic term for designating a subservient class dependent on foreign economies (Rafael, 1997). The Filipina "in her domesticated role as nurturer, caregiver, homemaker, teacher, nurse" (Suarez, 2010) has been thrust into the global labor force where she is hailed as a national hero in the Philippines.

During the celebration of the centennial of Filipino migration to the United States in 2006, the Filipina Women's Network (FWN) noted that the focus was largely on Filipino men who came to America as migrant farm workers and Filipina women who came as war brides. To ensure that the role of Filipina women in the building of America is never forgotten, the FWN launched Pinay Power to inspire and advance Filipina women leaders who would influence the Filipino American community's future.

From 2007-2013, the FWN has recognized five hundred Filipina women as Founders and Pioneers, Innovators and Thought Leaders, Policymakers and Visionaries, Behind the Scenes Leaders, and Builders and Emerging Leaders. In 2013, FWN honored the Global100—the most influential Filipina women in the world. FWN’s campaigns to recognize Filipina women have created an archive of questions and answers on leadership, including videotaped interviews about Filipinas’ leadership experiences and writings on the global impact of their influence.

Synthesis

The plan calls for the editors to write an introductory chapter in order to situate Filipina Global Leadership within the literature and research on leadership, gender, global leadership, and individual and national development. The editors will examine Filipina women leaders’ use of written (as evidenced by their chapters and written submissions to the Global 100) and oral (based on the videotapes) accounts to build significance, activities, identities, relationships, politics, connections, and knowledge (see Gee 2010) about being leaders and exercising leadership.

This analysis will examine how the Filipina Global leaders enhanced motivation, morale and performance within their circle of leadership and demonstrated power. Furthermore, it will look at how the Filipina leaders describe the multiple contexts that frame their leadership, including the national and international level.

The editors will write an integrative, concluding (or summative?) chapter based on the narratives and case studies, augmented by the FWN archive materials on the nomination and selection of the Global 100 and the videotaped interviews. This summative chapter will examine the range of characteristics of global leaderships, global leadership competencies, and effectiveness of global leadership that are articulated in the chapters written by one or more authors.

Chapter Guidelines

There are several ways to approach the writing of your chapter. Among these ways are:

• Narrative—exploring the life of one or more individual leaders, identifying patterns of meaning (events, processes, epiphanies, themes)
• Case study—analyzing an event, a program, or an activity of one or more leaders, examining the case/cases and its/their context.

Whichever approach you decide, the use of stories that consider different layers of narrative enrichment (Ellis, 2012) will enhance the chapter. These are: Context (make use of dialog, flashback, letters, newspapers, diaries, journals); Conflict (external tensions, for example, conflicts between the leader and others, and internal tensions, for example, conflict between the leader and her values); Sensory imagery (activate the five senses of the reader, through characterization that is believable and memorable); Point of view (who is telling the story—third person or first person); Emotion (show not tell); Connection (readers must see some link between the narrative and their lives); Humor (make use of word play and thought play); Wisdom (chance to speak out truth without being preachy); and, Word choice (go for specificity and eloquence).

Timeline

• Call for Abstracts (300 – 500 words)–December 17, 2013
• Submit Abstracts to Maria Beebe, copy Maya Escudero, Prosy Delacruz and Betty Ann Besa-Quirino–January 16, 2013
• Select Abstracts and then submit book proposal with abstracts–January 1, 2014

• Submit first draft of chapters (10-15 pages single-spaced)–April 15, 2014
• Comments–May 15, 2014
• Submit final draft of chapters

About the Editors

All the editors and chapter authors are recipients of the 100 Most Influential Filipina Women Award™ from the Filipina Women’s Network.

Maria Beebe

Maria Beebe has a Master of Arts in Anthropology and Ph. D. in Education from Stanford University. Her research interests include critical discourse analysis, women’s leadership and information and communication technologies (ICT) for development. Maria has over twenty-five years experience in higher education and sustainable development. She recently returned from Afghanistan as a Sr ICT Advisor in Education. She served as Washington State University Chief of Party for a USAID-funded $12 million Afghan eQuality Alliances that forged partnerships with U. S. universities and established computer centers at Afghan universities. Among her accomplishments: Recommendations on the use of ICTs to expand the global outreach at Portland State University; Development of an e-learning management system, curriculum on ICT policy and regulation at various African universities and a Masters in public policy and administration in Afghanistan, policy paper on E-education in Basic and Further Education in South Africa, and a concept paper on ICTs for education in Ethiopia.

Maria co-edited a book entitled AfricaDotEdu. Maria shares lessons learned through reflection on action and papers at international conferences. She participated in the Afghanistan Country Workshop and presented a paper on MOOCs and m-learning at the World Summit on Information Society 2013. Maria launched Global Networks to provide professional development services for global engagement.

James, Maria’s husband, has introduced her to the global stage by way of Peace Corps and their chidren—David and Ligaya consider themselves global citizens.

Maria Beebe can be reached at mariab@ffwn.org.

Maya Ong Escudero

Maya Ong Escudero has over twenty years of experience in education and development, combined with community activism and fundraising. Maya continues to pursue her interests in intercultural networking and intergenerational relationships. She believes that these two aspects of social interaction foster greater understanding and more positive role-modeling between girls and women of different cultural experiences and economic backgrounds.

Maya has served on various boards including Filipina Women’s Network, Literacy Initiatives International Foundation, Association for Senior Day Health, Ayala Foundation USA, Youth Community Service, Vanguard Public Foundation, and United Way of Santa Clara.

Maya has a Master of Arts in English, with a minor in Education. She finished coursework in U. S.-Philippine Political and Economic Relations at Goddard College, Cambridge, MA. She is a 2003 graduate of the Ambassador Program and a 2001 graduate of the Leadership Midpeninsula Program, both with the Chamber of Commerce of the City of Palo Alto, California. Along with her husband Nick Selby, and children—Ben and Ruth, Maya is an active supporter of youth leadership training in sports, the arts, and in community activism.

Maya Ong Escudero can be reached at mayae@ffwn.org.