Identity narratives enhance the understanding of women’s leadership, but there exist very few in-depth analyses of negative identity tensions that influence agency. In this study, we examine the negative identity tensions of well-to-do women from small towns in India, who hold two leadership positions: organizational and social movement. We borrow from the discourse on well-to-do women’s participation in social movements in India to draw on the notions of identity, perceptions of feminism, and patriarchal challenge. Our data are derived from 49 in-depth interviews with women leaders. Findings from qualitative analysis and creation of a composite narrative show that negative identity tensions arising from two leadership positions are gendered in nature. Furthermore, agency is (i) contingent on one’s reflection on challenges, (ii) rooted in an underlying principle, and (iii) practiced through the mechanisms of “managing femininity,” a concept that is widely discussed in the Western paradigms of postfeminism and neoliberalism. This paper contributes to the feminist dialog on the global South in the context of gender, class, and geographical location intersection by revealing certain non-Western ways of managing femininity. However, in the process, the hegemony of Indian men remains intact.

中文翻译：

---

印度担任两个领导职位的女性的身份紧张

身份叙事增强了对女性领导力的理解，但对影响能动性的负面身份紧张局势的深入分析很少。在这项研究中，我们研究了来自印度小镇的富裕女性的负面身份紧张，她们担任两个领导职位：组织和社会运动。我们借用关于印度富裕妇女参与社会运动的论述，以借鉴身份观念、女权主义观念和父权制挑战。我们的数据来自对女性领导者的 49 次深度访谈。定性分析和创建复合叙事的结果表明，由两个领导职位引起的负面身份紧张在本质上是性别化的。此外，能动性 (i) 取决于个人对挑战的反思，(ii) 植根于一个基本原则，以及 (iii) 通过“管理女性气质”的机制来实践，这一概念在西方后女性主义和新自由主义范式中被广泛讨论。本文通过揭示某些管理女性气质的非西方方式，在性别、阶级和地理位置交叉的背景下促进全球南方的女性主义对话。然而，在这个过程中，印度男人的霸权依然完好无损。