Media Release

Mangalore, Nov 11: Anand Pereira SJ successfully defended his thesis ‘Leadership: Collaborative not Confrontational Understanding Leadership from the Perspectives of Angami Women Leaders’ at Creighton University, Omaha, Nebraska (USA) on Thursday November 8 and was awarded the Doctor of Education in Interdisciplinary Leadership (EdD).

“More girls have been killed in the last fifty years, precisely because they were girls, than men were killed in all the battles of the twentieth century,” Kristof & WuDunn say in their bestseller ‘Half the Sky’. Women in the developing world are even more discriminated against than their counterparts in the developed world. In such a context where survival itself is a challenge, the chances of finding women who are able to develop and exercise their leadership ability, are very scant. Those few women who are able to exhibit their leadership ability despite being entrenched in such discriminatory contexts are worth emulating.

Anand Pereira SJ in his thesis ‘Leadership: Collaborative not confrontational understanding leadership from the perspectives of Angami women leaders’ investigates leadership from the perspectives of one such group of women belonging to India’s troubled northeast, the Angami Naga women. In spite of living in a culture that is apparently male-dominated, these women are able to exercise their leadership in a very unique manner.

He applied the grounded theory method to study the phenomenon of leadership among these women, the factors to which they attribute their leadership ability, and the strategies they use to develop it further. The insights gained through this study are meant to help these Angami women recognize and appreciate their own potential, and to help other women who are lodged in similar contexts to develop their own leadership ability. The information gathered through this study could especially be helpful to people who work for the empowerment of women.

Anand Pereira is a Jesuit priest working in the North – Eastern region of India. He joined the Society of Jesus in 1986 for Karnataka later in 1995 he opted to work for North Eastern region of India. He was ordained priest in 2000.

Anand is son of Jeanette Pereira and Late Charles Pereira of Bendur parish (later moved to Urva). Jeanette Pereira is the retired headmistress of St Aloysius College Primary School, Mangalore.

Anand is the brother of Arun, Anil, Anoop and Late Ashok Pereira.

Anand soon after completing his Masters in counseling at Creighton University, Omaha, Nebraska in May 2010, took up doctoral work in leadership and completed the research in a record time. He also has a Masters degree in sociology from Pune University.