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Contents Overview............................................................................. 4 Day 1: Challenge............................................................... 6 Day 2: Make Your Mark.................................................... 15 Day 3: Limitations.............................................................. 24 Day 4: Vulnerability........................................................... 32 Outcomes......................................................................... 42 2
I want to dedicate this book to the original girl gang of eight brave women who happily jumped into the first She’s Rogue workshop and gave it all they had. Thank you for your vulnerability, your whit and your creativity. A special thanks to Genesia Ting for capturing the spirit of these workshops through her lens. 3
Overview Over the course of four weeks, eight women engaged in a series of four workshops to see if their confidence grew when they adventured, faced challenges, and created in a safe environment with other women. Each workshop had a theme - challenge, make your mark, limitations and vulnerability, and they consisted of adventure and creativity to promote overcoming various challenges. The structure of the workshop was prompt, challenge and reflection. As a researcher I provided the prompt for participants to get started, then stepped away to see what they took away from the activity. I gave prompts to reveal certain dynamics as participants worked. This program tested if women could take risks and face challenge through adventure and creativity in a safe environment, would their self efficacy increase in other areas of their lives. 4
My hypothesis was based on social psychologist Albert Bandura who states that self efficacy is the belief in your own ability to succeed in a situation or accomplish a task. He proved that if a person built courage in one area of their life other areas would be directly impacted The goal of the program is to build cohorts of women who are free to adventure and create with other women and gain momentum to become active leaders and citizens in their communities. On a national level we are seeing the power of women coming together to support one another and we hope to only add to that momentum. Thank you for your interest in the journey!
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Day 1: Challenge The goal of this workshop was for women to identify how they approached challenge. They were encouraged to physically take up space and use their voices even if it felt unfamiliar. 7
Prompt: Think of a time in the past month that you faced a challenge. How did you respond? Did you face it? Did you ask for help? Did you shy away? Was it uncomfortable? 8
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Exercise: Pick a challenge on the rock wall and see how you respond. Use your voice to encourage the other women. Take up space on the wall. Watch how you define success. Watch how you deal with competition. 10
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Reflection: 1. Describe any challenges that you experienced during rock climbing. 2.Describe if and how challenges. 3.How did it feel to take up space and use your voice? 4. Did you notice how you spoke with yourself when you faced a challenge? 5. What did you learn?
“I overcame my fears by trusting my teammates, listening to their encouragement, as well as, encouraging myself to continue. Encouragement and self talk really do help.”
“As I grew more gentle with myself, I found I was proud of how much I could achieve despite my doubt.”
“I didn’t acknowledge what a big accomplishment it was to get so high, to take risks without absolute confidence in “success” and being able to grab onto the tricky holds when my mind was unsure. I acknowledge them now and I hope I can acknowledge them in my process.” 12
“It wasn’t my body telling me I couldn’t do it, it was my mind. Once I made up my mind that I could do it, I did and I was really proud. I learned to be more mind to myself and use encouraging words because I will be more able to overcome challenges this way.”
“My body is stronger and more beautiful than I often give it credit for.” “I loved encouraging other women in our group and receiving encouragement. I feel guilty for having fun and not being productive and this felt like a good way to just enjoy a fun activity.” “At first, I wanted to push myself because I didn’t want to appear weak in front of anyone else. When I didn’t reach the top I was upset that I couldn’t go further. I wasn’t nice to myself. My inner dialogue was harsh, but my climbing partner helped me shift the tone of my internal dialogue with her encouragement. When I was cheering for the girls I realized that everyone is at different skill levels and it doesn’t have to be a competition.” 13
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Day 2: Make Your Mark Participants read “We Should All Be Feminists� to help them think about what it means to them to take up space and leave their mark as a woman. The goal of the workshop was to give them the opportunity to create in a maker space dedicated to women at Girls Garage in Berkeley, CA and see if facing challenge in a such a space had any impact on their work.
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Prompt: 1. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie author of “We Should All Be Feminist� talks about the cultural pressure to be ambitious, but not too ambitious. Have you experienced this? What is one way you can be proud of your ambition? 2. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie talks about how girls grow up and turn pretense into an art form. Is there an area in your life that you can relate to this? How can you take a step back and find a way to be authentic to you? 3. Are there any roles you feel like you have to meet because of your gender? 4. How do you celebrate being female? 16
5. What is one area where you can empower others around you? 6. What is your response to “Culture does not make people, people make culture.”? 7. What is your response to her definition of feminism? 8. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie talks about unhealthy competition among females. How can you create relationships with healthy competition? 9. Fill in the blank “I am unapologetically...”. Are there areas you need to be less apologetic about yourself? What does that look like? What is one area you want to be unapologetically you?
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Exercise: Spend the day in Berkeley, CA at Girls Garage a maker space dedicated to women. While there women were challenged to come up with a logo that represents a part of your life that feels significant. Weld a bench with your team. Engrave the logo on the bench. Go on a hike afterwards to debrief and connect with each other, your body and nature.
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Reflection:
“Women can do anything that men can do, but programs like this allow them to participate in a way that isn’t “proving themselves”.”
1. Explain the logo you made and what it means to you. 2.Describe your experience with welding. 3. Describe your experience being in a space dedicated to creative women.
“I can remember one time in my life that I felt this at peace and full of hope. Today was the second time.”
4. Describe your experience with the hike. “I left this day feeling empowered, respected, valued, and more patient with myself and the skills I am working on.”
5. What did you take away from this experience overall? What did you learn about yourself? 22
“I am always learning that I am more capable than I think I am and not to let my passions scare me.”
“I felt safe in a creative setting for the first time in a while and it felt liberating to not have to navigate toxic people in regards to gender. There’s no bullshit, just women working together to get work done.”
“This experience reminded me that I am resilient. I am never done learning. Life is cyclical. For every hard week there are experiences like this that make me feel confident and alive once again.” 23
Day 3: Limitations Participants spent 3 hours in a wood shop learning how to create with many limitations and as part of a team. The goal of the workshop was to understand how they respond to limitations and how does working with other women change the dynamic of the project.
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Prompt: The woodworking project has many intentional limitations. Sometimes it can be tempting to feel defined by the things in life that feel like limitations, however, limitations can also help us develop and define our voice, creativity, and opportunities. What is your relationship with limitations? Are they intimidating, do they deter you?
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Exercise: Using only 18 inch, 24 inch and 36 inch lengths of 2 x4’s design and build a sitting object with a teammate in 3 hours. Pay attention to how you handle limitations, work with a team, and making decisions with intense constraints.
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Reflection: 1. How did the limitations in the exercise help or hinder the project?
“I think re-framing a lot of limitations as a different way to navigate the world can be a great start to overcoming them.”
2. How did working with a partner change/enhance the project? 3. Did you learn anything today about limitations that can be applied to other areas of your life?
“I feel like the word limitations is almost the wrong word because they ultimately don’t limit you, they just force you to work within a different framework. And that process in itself can be freeing.” 30
“Limitations force you through discomfort, but they also foster growth. When we’re limited by boundaries and constraints, it feels daunting and frustrating at first. However, knowing and believing that we can make the boundaries and constraints work for us is a powerful idea.”
“Accepting that you can’t be good at everything right away and being open to learning from others instead of seeing that as a sign of weakness. It’s ok to ask for help and guidance when you don’t know something! Also, just because you feel limited doesn’t mean you actually are. There are ways to work around it; using things you already feel confident in to help you problem solve and think outside the box. That can pretty much be applied to any area of life. You’re only limited if you let yourself be.” 31
Day 4: Play, Vulnerability & The Final Circle We originally had a different plan to camp on the ocean but we were rained out. The team embraced spontaneity. They were excited for adventure and making even without a plan because these themes had started to became a habit. What was special was they more than anything they just wanted to be together, create and have fun. It was empowering to feel light and playful and this lead to more vulnerability and a beautiful final circle with the women. 32
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Prompt: In response to reading Designing Your Life create 2, 5-year plans. Be prepared to share with your classmates at the retreat.
Exercise: Participants began the workshop with macramĂŠ. It was a relaxing time to create and connect as a cohort. Afterwards, they explored outside and picked parts of the dinner from the garden. They followed this with covering their hands in flour and making pasta to share.
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The Final Circle: The momentum of play and lessons learned from prior weeks built into a beautiful moment of vulnerability, support and dialogue amongst participants. They were suppose to come with a 5 year plan, but instead they wanted support, encouragement and the ability to be ambitious. This turned into dialogue about fears and dreams and each participant walked away with encouragement and strength for their next steps. The retreat ended with making a painting in response to, “What does rogue mean to you?�.
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Reflections “I am important.”
1. How has this workshop impacted you?
“I am so much bigger than who I thought I was.”
“I can be strong and vulnerable at the same time.”
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“I can be happy and creative in a safe space.”
“I am more trusting of myself and my decisions”
“I have a right to be here where I am right now. I can be supported, I can support others.”
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Outcomes Participants saw an average increase of 26% in self efficacy even in areas the workshops did not specifically address.
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Lessons Learned
Participants saw an increase in confidence in personal and work relationships, leadership roles, speaking up when they saw injustice, ability to meet new people and taking up mental space.
Discomfort, exposure to new content, and gaining victories in a safe environment with a strong cohort created momentum for participants to tackle challenges outside of the workshops. 44
One’s believes in their own abilities is directly connected to their personal impact within their communities.
Woodworking and welding were ranked the most responsible for increasing self confidence. Adventuring and group discussions came next.
One’s belief in their abilities increases when exposed to new opportunities with community, reflection and mentorship. 45
What was the most impactful part of the experience?
“Being with encouraging women.”
“The building of confidence and companionship of others.”
“The most impactful moment for me was when I realized that I was more positive and confident in my skills and potential when I was surrounded by other learning women.” 46
“Being surrounded by a group of incredibly supportive women and trying new things together.“
“It was really impactful to learn new skills in a noncompetitive, low-stress environment. It actually made the process enjoyable, and opened up so much more room for connection and creativity when I wasn't worried about what was riding on the outcome, or the dread of the process knowing the expectation vs. time constraint ratio is imbalanced.” “The connections that I made with all the other women was honestly the most impactful. Being able to talk so vulnerably with each and every one of them was something I wouldn't be able to do elsewhere.” 47
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