How do leaders tap into the wisdom of their bodies to make decisions and choices which ‘pull on their heartstrings’ or ‘churn their gut’? In this chapter Amanda and colleague Donna Ladkin argues that bodies play a central role in caring, and caring is central to leadership.

Leadership often involves recognising differences, reducing discrimination and fostering inclusion in organisations and societies. In this chapter Amanda and Michelle call attention to the power dynamics behind the construction of difference. Who is designated ‘different’ and how can diverse communities and organisations be led in ways that do not reinforce power differentials? The chapter includes contemporary examples of leaders who celebrate difference and empower diverse communities.

Engaging our bodies in deciding what we write (by telling us what matters) and how we write (by bringing bodily intelligence to the writing process) results in more impactful writing according to Donna and Amanda. While traditional academic writing silences bodies in order to fashion ‘objective’ knowledge, this chapter provides personal and practical ways to liberate bodily knowing so that it can more freely inform our writing projects.

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.

Drawing on the experiences of 29 Australian Indigenous artists and arts leaders, Michelle and Amanda identify 3 categories of identity practice through which the artists deliver leadership: contesting essentialism; containing trauma and creating belonging.

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”.

This article explores Indigenous practices of midwifery or ‘wise women’ as crucial domains of leadership over millennia and across cultures. Four principles of midwifery leadership are identified: being a leader who empowers with ‘no one person wiser than the other’; embodying wisdom and ethical practice which nurtures social, cultural and spiritual needs of women; being skilled as well as emotionally attuned; and paying attention and being responsive to emergent change and unfolding present reality rather than being prescriptive.