Toward a new identity framework for women leaders.

"Leaders are not found in formulas," said Dr. Barbara Curry. "The leader persona is bound up in an individual's process of becoming."

Essentially, leaders are not born. They are made and influenced by their experiences. And Curry, a professor in the school of education and an affiliated member of the faculty in women's studies at the University of Delaware, is researching how adult identity development supports women's ways of leading.

"In order to understand ways in which leadership develops, we must know and understand something about the developmental pathways those leaders have traveled," she added. Curry shared the next step in her research at the University of Nebraska's Women in Educational Leadership conference held in Lincoln in October.

Constructing a leadership image

If we understand the myths and images behind the traditional depiction of leaders, we can construct one that's more realistic for women. "Leadership personas emerge from our individual psychology and are unique," said Curry. "They are part of our developmental experiences."

This means that there is no one leadership prescription or set of rules that will make us effective leaders. Instead, leadership is an outgrowth of self-exploration or self-study, which can change depending upon the context we find ourselves in. Understanding ourselves brings our intellect closer to "the multiple realities of the social experience."

Curry defines identity as the fundamentals behind our sense of self. It's the "stable, consistent and reliable" sense of who we are and what we stand for. Identity includes our values, goals and beliefs, which influence the way we behave throughout our lives. Identity also links our past to our present. It becomes a way in which we organize and understand our experiences and share our "meaning systems" with others.