Female Leadership as a Praxis of Resistance and Social Transformation: A Feminist, Intersectional, and Decolonial Perspective

Abstract

This article analyzes female leadership from feminist, intersectional, community-based, and decolonial perspectives, emphasizing current theoretical debates in Latin America. Through a critical literature review, it examines the contributions of key authors who enable a reconfiguration of the concept of leadership beyond traditional patriarchal frameworks. First, it explores gender approaches—drawing on Joan Acker and Judith Butler—to demonstrate how organizational structures and identities are constructed and gendered. Second, it addresses intersectional and situated perspectives through the contributions of feminists of color such as bell hooks and Patricia Hill Collins, who underscore the importance of experiences from the margins in the transformation of power. Third, it discusses community and territorial leadership based on the communal feminism of Indigenous authors like Lorena Cabnal and the reflections of Ochy Curiel, who link women's emancipation to the defense of land and community. Finally, the article delves into a decolonial approach to female leadership through the theories of María Lugones, Silvia Rivera Cusicanqui, and Gloria Anzaldúa, who propose the necessity of dismantling the coloniality of power and embracing hybrid identities in leadership practices. The article concludes by highlighting that these theoretical frameworks offer a vision of female leadership as a tool for social change from the periphery, challenging hierarchies of gender, race, and colonialism while proposing horizontal, collective, and emancipatory models.