Strategies for Gender Equality and Effectiveness in the Field
For more information, contact Nasserie Carew
Women Leaders Championing Our Sector
Anne Lynam Goddard,
President, Christian Children’s Fund
Sometimes getting ahead in the NGO community requires women to jump through hoops. Anne Lynam Goddard, new President of Christian Children’s Fund, didn’t miss a beat combining marriage, family and a career to become a leader in the world of international development for non-governmental organizations (NGOs). When she started working in Africa 25 years ago, there were very few women in leadership roles in the humanitarian community, recalls Goddard. Appointed by CARE in 1999 as the first female Country Director in Egypt after 50 years of male leadership, she stated that men respected her for her expertise and collaborative managerial style.
Goddard believes that her long career with NGOs, including her most recent role as Chief of Staff for CARE, was great preparation for coming to lead Christian Children’s Fund during a time of unprecedented growth. “It gave me a level of knowledge and experience at the executive level to understand all aspects of the organization, to negotiate difficult business decisions, and handle the challenges that face all international development organizations today,” said Goddard.
As a new CEO, Goddard advises younger women to go after a number of different NGO jobs early in their careers, learn all parts of the business and build their skill set working strategically towards an executive position. She believes humanitarian emergency situations are a good place for younger women to start. “It requires both flexibility and determination in very difficult post-conflict or natural disaster settings, but offers a lot of opportunity for a wide range of experience,” said Goddard.
“I see a pipeline of younger women in the next five to ten years that will be filling leadership positions formerly occupied only by men in the NGO world. Women must earn their stripes to be in these leadership positions. Fast tracking is a real disservice for women if it means not building a wide base of experience to learn from,” said Goddard. But American women need to realize that it may be harder now to move up overseas because many NGOs are hiring nationals for leadership positions.
One area that offers women an advantage is our connection to those who hold the family purse strings. Studies in the United States have shown that women are the primary decision-makers in the home when it comes to support of philanthropic endeavors. According to Goddard, women leaders are in a unique position to reach out to women in the U.S. to convey the reality of life in a poor country for children and families and the real opportunities available to improve their lives and circumstances. Children’s issues resonate with women in the U.S. in terms of alleviating poverty and they can bring that message to the political platform as well as representatives of a major voting block in this country.
Managing a personal life and work life does indeed require women to jump through a lot of hoops. “My mother stayed with my children more than once when my husband and I were both traveling internationally for work” said Goddard. “I know other women who have taken their mothers abroad to care for their children while they worked,” Goddard explains. “But it takes a special kind of mother to be willing to go to some of the countries where NGOs work.”
