Silja Bára Ómarsdóttir, professor at UI’s Faculty of Political Science, is among 50 women from all over the world who have been invited to take part in Global Community for Women's Leadership, aiming to train and support the next generation of women leaders.
This is the first time a group like this one has been chosen, and the NGO Institute of International Education (IIE) is behind the initiative. For over a century, the Institute has offered various projects, strategies, and grants, connecting people worldwide to exchange ideas and learn from each other. The Fulbright Program is best known here in Iceland, as numerous Icelandic academics and students have enjoyed its support for study and research.
Silja Bára is one of these academics and was selected a few years ago for participation in the Fulbright Arctic Initiative III (FAI), the Fulbright flagship in the field of Arctic research.
Based on her participation in that project, Silja Bára was invited to apply to join the Global Community for Women's Leadership (GCWL), the first of its kind in the world, and later selected to the inaugarl cohort. GCWL aims to reduce the gender gap among leaders globally by equipping women with the tools necessary to thrive in their careers and strengthen their networks.
The GCWL website points out that according to UN Women and WEF predictions, at the current pace of change, global equality in the workplace will not be achieved for another 150 years. Only 1 in every 3 managers worldwide is a woman. The IIE wishes to counter this by connecting women with varied educational and professional backgrounds from all over the world. These women are then offered an opportunity to participate in a plan intended to enable them to assume leadership roles and to thrive in them, and encourage positive change.
The first GCWL comprises fifty women from 30 countries. According to Silja Bára, membership includes a stipend for leadership training, a variety of courses and networking. “This is an amazing opportunity. The first group meeting will be with a leader at the Ford Foundation in the US, and I hope to learn from conversations with other women in the group through this network. The stipend is meant to ensure that we can participate in courses, and I intend to attend a course on higher education management and leadership early next year,” Silja Bára concludes.