Prologue
When Leaders Are at Their Personal Best

Madeline Price grew up on a beef cattle farm in rural Queensland, Australia. After high school graduation, she joined fifteen other recent graduates on a trip to see the world and do volunteer work in Cambodia and Thailand. While visiting a school in Cambodia, Madeline noticed that all twenty‐three students in the first‐grade classroom were male. When she asked the teacher where the girls were, she was shocked by his answer: “Boys are more valuable to educate,” he told Madeline.1

As soon as she returned to Australia, it clicked that the teacher's answer represented a problem that occurred everywhere. “I just hadn't perceived it yet,” Madeline said. “But those simple words, ‘Boys are more valuable,’ opened my eyes to the gender disparities faced abroad and in Australia.” Madeline's growing sensitivity to the gender inequality she saw back home in Australia clarified for her the need to speak out about it. However, she didn't find a receptive audience among her friend groups—at least, not at first.

“I talked about it with my friends, and very few people felt what I was feeling,” she told us. “My friends all truly believed that women were as equal as we could get. It wasn't that my friends didn't care; it was just that they didn't know.” To Madeline, however, it was evident that just because not everyone agreed with her, gender inequality was still a global issue. She couldn't get it out of her mind and didn't stop trying to speak to others about it.

A few years later, Madeline enrolled in a community development and leadership seminar while at university. “Going into the class, I knew I had to do something related to gender inequality,” Madeline said. She proposed conducting educational seminars for high school students and community organizations to open their eyes to how gender inequality still played a role in their lives and how they might combat it.

“I couldn't stop talking and thinking about it, even when other people I knew didn't seem to think it was as big a problem in Australia as I did,” Madeline said. She created the One Woman Project (OWP) and recruited volunteers to help her develop and lead the seminars. “The name comes from the idea that if we educated just one woman to empower herself, the world is already a better place,” Madeline said.

OWP works with schools and community organizations through invitation. Schools call OWP to conduct an educational seminar when an incident of gender bias has occurred on campus or just because they believe in the importance of gender inequality education. In addition, before the pandemic, OWP hosted the largest feminist festival in Queensland for three years running before transitioning to an online program. They also publish two feminist periodicals and host both in‐person and online events.

Framing the information in ways students could identify with was an early challenge for OWP. “It's not enough to say, ‘Gender inequality is a problem,’ especially for the girls in the high schools. They think it's a ‘me thing, not a culture thing.’” One of the best ways of engaging students, Madeline found, was to enable them to find their voices. She explained:

They're students, and they're not given many platforms to say, “This is what I think about sexuality or gender.” Student voices aren't often listened to regarding curriculum or educational issues. We want to hear their answer regarding those questions, and I think it's essential to let them know you want to listen to them. That makes a huge difference in getting them to share their opinions and feelings.

OWP also works to show that gender inequality is not an issue that affects women alone. The curriculum covers how a patriarchal culture reinforces beliefs and behaviors that harm men and women. For example, in cultures where masculinity is measured by “toughness” and the expectation that men do not show emotion, men have higher rates of suicide and accidental death and an increased chance of mental health concerns during their lifetime. In addition, Madeline recruited male volunteers to OWP, which helps give male students a visual connection to the idea that gender inequality is not an issue that affects only women. “I wanted to find ways to make sure that students see that both men and women are affected by these issues. Making certain that we have men going into schools to give these seminars along with our female volunteers is extremely helpful in that respect,” Madeline told us.

Starting the first gender inequality education program in the country was not without its challenges. “There was no one else in Australia running an educational program like this,” Madeline said. “That meant there was both a huge vacancy in the space and no template for us to work from.” As a young woman in the midst of her collegiate career tackling a sensitive issue head‐on in local schools and communities, Madeline enabled others in her community to believe that their ideas for making the world a better place could be achieved. Within OWP, Madeline supports that principle by cultivating an atmosphere of sharing ideas and developing leadership skills with her volunteers. She has even worked to convert the organization's structure to be in line more closely with the principles of OWP: where work is based upon autonomy and peer relationships rather than top‐down management strategies. “Rather than having singular leadership in the organization, we've become leader full,” Madeline said. The move from hierarchies mirrored the organization's values: “We didn't want to continue to perpetuate the dynamics that we are fighting against in the outside world. We needed to change ourselves in order to change the world.”

Today, the One Woman Project works in an average of 200 schools yearly and has reached more than 25,000 young people through in‐school educational programs and workshops. OWP has also gone on the road, conducting rural road trip visits to schools with less access to organizations like theirs—including the school Madeline attended. Outposts in China, Tanzania, and India have grown organically from volunteers who were so engaged in Australia that they wanted to stay connected and spread the message in their home countries. OWP also created a wealth redistribution fund for volunteers to dip in as needed—whether that means covering rent for the month or for professional development training a volunteer wants to undertake, even if it doesn't directly benefit OWP. “We have put together these practices and structures that can enable people to get from the organization what they need, so they can put into the organization what they want,” Madeline said.

Madeline's story speaks to a fundamental question: When does leadership begin? The answer is: whenever anyone seizes the moment to make something extraordinary happen. Anyone can do it! Madeline put it to us this way:

There is no set formula for creating change and making it happen. You just decide to do something, to make a difference, and then do it. If you want to make the pledge to achieve gender equality, all you really need is passion and the drive to take the first step.

Madeline saw an opportunity and took it, first when she returned from Cambodia and started talking with her friends about gender issues, and then at university, where she hatched her plan to launch the One Woman Project. Those relatively small opportunities transformed into something much more significant. Madeline didn't wait for someone to appoint her as “the” leader. She recognized an issue, had a passion for it, found others with a similar vision, and just got started. Then she kept going. Leadership, like any other skill in life, can be learned and strengthened through coaching and practice, and you don't have to wait until that support and preparation are lined up before you start to lead. No amount of coaching or practice can make much of a difference if you don't care deeply about making something better than it currently is.

Everyone can lead, whether or not they are in a formal position of authority or even part of an organized group.2 That's what we mean when we say leadership is everyone's business. It is not about being a student government officer; team, chapter, or club captain; program director; editor; supervisor; president; CEO; military officer; or government official. Nor is leadership about fame, wealth, or even age. It's not about your family status, the neighborhood you come from, or your gender, sexual orientation ethnic, or racial background. It's about knowing your values and those of the people around you and taking the steps, however small, to make what you do every day demonstrate that you live by those values.

Also, as Madeline's experience illustrates, leadership is about transforming values and goals into action. When members of her community and students at her university heard of OWP, enthusiastic volunteers showed up looking to become a part of her project because they shared the vision of eradicating gender inequality through education. “People wanted to get on board almost immediately because it was a cause they believed in,” Madeline said. “Like me, they'd experienced friends telling them things they...