Last Friday, April 1, the penultimate session of the Women's Leadership Skills Cycle was held. On this occasion, we were fortunate to have the testimony of María Iraburu, president of the University of Navarra since last January.
It was, as always, a close and relaxed talk, but on this occasion it had a special element. The Female Leadership Skills Cycle was born with the idea of being able to bring female referents from different professional fields to student body and this last session provided the opportunity to meet María Iraburu, a reference for the students of the University, not only as president, but also as a person and as an example of female leadership. For many, it was an opportunity to learn about university governance from a close and personal perspective staff.
Iraburu wanted to make it very clear from the beginning: we learn from stories and that is why it is important to tell them. Among those that inspired him, he highlighted the figure of his mother as an example of leadership, but he also wanted to emphasize that no story is individual, but that they are all part of a chain of influences and that, therefore, we all have the possibility of making a positive impact on others.
In love with the University of Navarra and its university spirit since her first year of biology, she urged those present to never abandon the attitude of questioning, because even though she comes from the natural sciences, she understands the need to ask questions about the latest causes and big issues. As a professor, she hinted at how nice it is for mentors to be able to see how their students evolve and, from her time in university government, she highlighted the possibility of getting to know the institutions as a whole and of launching significant projects that have an impact on society.
She left us three fundamental pieces of advice; the first, that life is a path through the forest and that as you cross it you grow; the second, the importance of being advised by people who have more experience and perspective and the vital role of a mentor; lastly, that a leader has many faces. For her, the leader is a reliable, approachable person who is willing to seek the good of the whole. The leader is not the "I", but the one who is able to see the "we". He or she must have the vocation to help and contribute.
A multitude of questions arose from her testimony, of which I would like to highlight a special one: women helping women. María told us that her researcher degree program had been marked by women leaders and highlighted the importance she felt in supporting the women around her, both when organizing panels and equal presentations, as well as giving in to a simple turn to speak. As an anecdote, only 15% of the rectorates in Spain are headed by women and two of the possible causes that were mentioned were the difficulty of finding women leaders in certain positions and the insufficiency of support networks.
Personally, I'm left with two ideas from the talk. First, the importance of telling stories and finding role models. Undoubtedly, we all have great examples nearby, but, on many occasions, girls have lacked female role models in some professional fields. It is in our hands that future generations have where to look and can see themselves reflected and that, in part, will depend on our ability to excite them. The second idea is the importance of helping to promote and boost the careers of other women. Informal networks have an undoubted weight in many professional fields. For this reason, it is essential to weave support networks and to keep in mind not only the names of professional colleagues, but also those of female colleagues.
At summary, if life is a road of which we do not know the end, the best we can do is to help our fellow travelers and, as far as possible, make it kinder for others. So the day may come, as María Iraburu said in an interview for the Diario de Navarra, when being the first is no longer news.
