Why We Need More Female Leaders In International Aid

ChildFund Australia’s Chief Executive Officer Margaret Sheehan led an international team in a war zone, helped rebuild communities after Typhoon Haiyan and transformed health and education systems around the world. Here Margaret shares what it is like to be a female leader and why more women are needed in the development and humanitarian aid sector. As a new CEO she faced one of the most difficult years for the organisation as developing communities grappled with the challenges of the pandemic and there were serious concerns about the impact of the global economic downturn would affect the

A new and challenging role in international aid

When civil war broke out in Yemen in 2015, Margaret was in the Philippines helping to piece together homes and schools that had been destroyed by Typhoon Haiyan . While she had built a level of resilience in the Philippines working in environments where trauma and devastation were the daily norm, the role in Yemen had its own set of challenges. She feared for her life when a bomb was dropped near the compound where she was living. “You would hear bombing over in certain places and you would see the sky light up and then it would quiet again, but this day it was the closest it came."

“We had to go down to the safe rooms; this bomb went off and the windows blew out, and I just thought, oh god, this is it.”

Margaret's responsibilities as a leader during a crisis

Margaret was second-in-charge of a team of 12 who had been deployed by UNICEF to write proposals on the ground to raise funds for emergency items such as food and water for families affected by the war. Living and working in a war zone as a senior female leader, however, meant her role became much more complex than writing proposals. She found herself becoming a mentor, providing emotional support to her colleagues, particularly for the younger women in her team. “There is a fair bit of mayhem going on because people are living in these strange environments. There’s a lot of emotional stuff,” Margaret says. It is because of this that emergency situations need strong women, says Margaret. “You need that rational side, but you also need some gentleness and someone to say it will be OK.”