Amanda provides a very personal account of how her feminism has been formed over ‘five movements’ and 3 decades. ‘I show how my material situations, physically-felt struggles and embodied encounters with others, especially women, wrested – sometimes catapulted – my precarious self-identification as a feminist.’

Women leaders often experience scrutiny of their identity and a sense of asymmetry – that is, others see them differently to how they see themselves. In this study women leaders in male-dominated industries describe their experiences - and their strategies for overcoming - identity asymmetry.

Women are typically subject to heightened scrutiny and criticism in leadership but in this study, Emma and Amanda explore examples in popular culture where women are portrayed enacting agency via three routes: by disrupting the patriarchal order; erotic leadership; and exploring an alternative “feminine imaginary”.

Drawing on the work of feminist theorists, Emma and Amanda argue that universities and academia have become sterile and transactional. By exploring the relationship between bodies and knowledge; by recognizing love in learning and wisdom; and by cultivating the pleasure and nurturance in teaching, academic work can be recast as an embodied practice, involving pleasure and love.

Why is it that so much of women’s contribution to public life has not been recognised as leadership? Amanda provides the reasons and argues the need to interrogate received wisdom about leadership and look to women to shift public imagination about what good leadership is.

Authenticity in leaders is surely a good thing. However, in this chapter Amanda shows that authenticity is not necessarily a property some leaders have, rather it is a quality others attribute to you. For women leaders, earning authenticity is made more complex by readily mobilised judgements and social stereotypes about women. ‘Just be yourself’ is not necessarily a simple path to success.