BUILDING RESPECT FOR FEMININE WAYS

"One of the things about equality is not just that you be treated equally to a man, but that you treat yourself equally to the way you treat a man."

-- Marlo Thomas

Hello Friends,

I was listening to an interview with Nina Simons, co- executive director of Bioneers, in which she was asked to comment on her leadership skills. She confessed that for a long time, she didn't see herself as a leader. She was in business with her husband and she simply considered herself to be the woman behind the man. She was shocked when she realized that she valued his intellectual approach above her own aesthetic and relational contribution.

She shouldn't have been surprised. Thanks to centuries of patriarchy, our culture devalues those qualities that have been relegated to the domain of the feminine. It's actually a left brain/right brain split. Left brain (masculine) attributes like rational, linear, abstract thinking and analysis are deemed superior to right brain (feminine) qualities of empathy, creativity, intuition, and synthesis.

Nina recognizes that if we are to encourage women to assume leadership roles in society, we need to redefine what qualities we want in our leaders. It's time to let go of the current leadership style that she describes as 'having to excel with your mind and cut off your heart.'

It's also time to redefine and own our relationship to power. Right brain thinking favours 'power with' instead of 'power over.' No matter what the challenge, we can all thrive if we set an intention to achieve a win/win solution.

Some of the most exciting initiatives underway in the world today are happening through collaboration. Increasingly, women are initiating and deepening those initiatives.

Do you feel confident in your own power? How can we best support women as individuals and groups to believe in our ideas and take the helm to bring change to the world? Let's get a discussion going on the 'women at heart' forum

~ Patrice

"How wrong it is for a woman to expect the man to build the world she wants, rather than to create it herself."

-- Anais Nin

Nina Simon's interview can be heard at http://www.womenwakingtheworld.com