{"id":3215,"date":"2012-03-21T09:00:08","date_gmt":"2012-03-21T12:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/?p=3215"},"modified":"2015-08-14T19:13:30","modified_gmt":"2015-08-14T22:13:30","slug":"women-in-leadership-conflict-mediation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/?p=3215","title":{"rendered":"Women in Leadership: Conflict Mediators"},"content":{"rendered":"

CatComm<\/a> recently surveyed some of the most active women community leaders in our network about womanhood and community leadership to get a sense of women\u2019s voices and knowledge across Rio\u2019s communities. The initial result is this article, first in a series which highlights common threads and shared experiences, sorting out the challenges, strengths, and nuances that womanhood brings to community leadership and community life in general. This Women\u2019s History Month, we are committed to bringing visibility to women\u2019s stories.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Several participants either directly or subtly mentioned communication and conflict mediation as central to their work. \u201cI believe women are more versatile and know how to achieve things through diplomacy\u2026 we are more careful and know how to minimize conflict,\u201d shares Leidimar Machado, who has worked with children and youth in Caixa de Surpresa<\/a> for several decades in Bangu. One participant, in particular, stood out for her confidence in a talent for mediation. C\u00edntia Paulo Luna<\/a> of Morro do Fogueteiro told us: \u201cI am a great conflict mediator. I resolve 100% of problems the first time I sit down with all parties involved.\u201d<\/p>\n

As the first female president of the Santa Teresa United Residents Association (AMUST) and mother to three daughters (18, 16 and 10 years old), C\u00edntia has years of experience with conflict mediation, both at home and on the street. In fact it is because of the relationship between home and street that she began her career as a community leader when she became active in the Neighborhood Association because of a lack of activities in the community for her own children.<\/p>\n

A common part of C\u00edntia\u2019s job is resolving conflicts among residents, and examples abound of her experience and success as residents turn to her for help with any and all problems in the neighborhood. One resident, for example, complained on multiple occasions about a leak from the neighbor\u2019s house which flooded his own. When attempts to talk with his neighbor proved futile, the frustrated resident drove a hammer into one of the neighbor\u2019s walls. The angry neighbors called on C\u00edntia to mediate.<\/p>\n

\"\"\u201cWhat I tried to do was get them to reason,\u201d tells C\u00edntia. \u201cI said, look, he tried to talk to you about this a lot, and sure, he was wrong to damage your wall like that, but let\u2019s try to understand what was going on before now.\u201d The result: the neighbors split the cost of repairing the wall and the leak. C\u00edntia often employs this strategy of getting residents to reason and look at the situation from the other\u2019s perspective.<\/p>\n

On another occasion, a resident opened a new window in her home to allow more air to flow through her child\u2019s room, but her neighbor complained that the new window opened onto her porch and took away her privacy. When C\u00edntia was summoned, the first thing she did was invite the complaining neighbor into the other woman\u2019s home to check out the window from the inside. \u201cI asked her to take a look for herself, to see if she could actually see onto her porch. What I did was let them analyze and reach a conclusion, the same one I had already reached, themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n

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There are many themes which dot C\u00edntia\u2019s history as a community leader. Strengths gained from motherhood translating into strengths as a community leader is certainly one of them. One of these C\u00edntia calls the \u201cmotherly eye,\u201d and she asserts that it is essential to effective conflict mediation. In a room full of youth participants in any of Morro do Fogueteiro\u2019s activities, you have women and men in charge. \u201cLet\u2019s say there\u2019s one kid who\u2019s constantly messing up. While a man will be quick to admonish and punish, a woman will sit back and think, \u2018now, why might he always be getting into trouble like this? Well, to start with, I know his family situation\u2026 we women look for the reason behind the mistake.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

C\u00edntia is also quick to explain that some may suggest this is a less practical approach. \u201cIt\u2019s not that men are more practical; it\u2019s that there is variety in practicality, and women\u2019s practicality isn\u2019t harsh or rushed.\u201d C\u00edntia also claims that practicality does not automatically equate to effectiveness.<\/p>\n

Another theme is how interactions with men may be different because of the presence of a female mediator. C\u00edntia interestingly paints two very different responses to a female authoritative presence. Sometimes \u201cmen become calmer and try to be more polite, even when they want to say, \u2018Look, don\u2019t get involved.\u2019\u201d There are others, however, when one may hear the response, \u201c\u2018How am I supposed to take orders from a woman?\u2019\u201d C\u00edntia shares that in situations like the latter, she has to assert herself, but she also adds, \u201cEven when I have to assert myself, I try not to be aggressive.\u201d<\/p>\n

While discussing differences in men\u2019s, women\u2019s and the community\u2019s reactions to certain situations, their strengths in leadership, and family dynamics, C\u00edntia wisely expresses the value in diversity. When she talks about the different approaches between men and women, she clarifies, \u201cWe know we need both of these types of approaches.\u201d Most important in her work, C\u00edntia stresses, is community participation, \u201cWe want greater community participation, we want men and women.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

CatComm recently surveyed some of the most active women community leaders in our network about womanhood and community leadership to get a sense of women\u2019s voices and knowledge across Rio\u2019s communities. The initial result is […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":3242,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1284,329,328],"tags":[317,1261,436,129,117,439],"writer":[44],"translator":[],"illustrator":[],"photographer":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-3215","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-interviews-profiles","8":"category-solutions","9":"category-understanding-rio","10":"tag-bangu","11":"tag-central-rio","12":"tag-gender","13":"tag-leadership","14":"tag-morro-do-fogueteiro","15":"tag-testimonial","16":"writer-mary-allison-joseph"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3215","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3215"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3215\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3242"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3215"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3215"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3215"},{"taxonomy":"writer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fwriter&post=3215"},{"taxonomy":"translator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftranslator&post=3215"},{"taxonomy":"illustrator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fillustrator&post=3215"},{"taxonomy":"photographer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fphotographer&post=3215"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}