I've read lots of articles analyzing whether the Year of the Woman is alive or dead. Neither is true. There has to be a strong Year of the Woman in order to kill it, which I've yet to see. In truth, the Decade of the Woman is just starting. As a woman, you should prepare now for the power you will have in the next few years.
Intuit Inc. commissioned a study to forecast the trends expected to change the way women live and work over the next decade. In addition to the powerful worldwide consumer force that women represent today, factors such as urban migration, increased access to education, mobile technologies, micro-credit and low-market entry costs will create a global "she-conomy" where over one billion women will enter the workforce or start businesses by 2020. The study suggests:
We are a force to be reckoned with. Some unconscious men and non-progressive women may try to hold us back, but we have the numbers to make a difference. If we stand together, we can also have the voice.
As we enter 2011, we should start calling the shots. We should stop trying to fit inside a man's world. Gloria Steinem recently said, "Don't think about making women fit the world. Think about making the world fit women." If we live by choice --choosing to wear stilettos or flats as we please, choosing to adapt to earn respect before we make changes or to opt out and do our own thing, or choosing to work and raise a family or do them one at a time -- then as the primary consumers, the world has to meet our needs. Steinem challenged women to "pursue the life choices they would most enjoy, regardless of societal expectations."
We don't have to compete with men or participate with them on their terms. We can create and live by our own expression of business, leadership, community and family. This doesn't mean we exclude men. We move forward when:
Our capacity to love, to allow, to express emotion and to create beautiful spaces to live and work in should attract people, regardless of gender or age.
Do you think this is a fantasy? I believe there are many men who prefer mutual respect over domination. I travel the world for my work; I see these men growing in numbers around the world.
I'm not suggesting that women control men. I'm saying it's time we stand strongly as their equals living on our own terms. With the support of conscious men, this can be a reality.
Men created the companies, the leadership models and the systems that are breaking down in today's world. Here in the United States, the rate of change is so pitiful that I am afraid for my country. I think our best shot is to quit trying to fix the old way and look to create an exciting, collaboration-based, innovation-run new way. Since it will only be a few years before women will outnumber men in the workplace, in degrees held and in privately held companies in the United States, shouldn't the executive staff of our major corporations strive to mirror the workplace and consumer base? Corporate leaders should start by asking women to help draw up the plans for the future of management. It's time let go and move on.
And if the leaders don't ask for our help, let's do it ourselves.
We also have to focus more on politics. Female representation is sorely lacking. Again, shouldn't our leadership mirror its base? Even if they are conscious, I don't count on male leaders to understand my needs and fight on my behalf. If politics is bad, then let's stand together to change it with a fresh spate of strong progressive female candidates.
The numbers are in our favor. I'm imagining a world run cooperatively by conscious men and women. How about you?
Marcia Reynolds, Psy.D., is president of Covisioning, a leadership coaching and training organization working with a variety of people and organizations around the world to increase emotional intelligence and collaboration. Can she help you and your organization move forward?
Follow Marcia Reynolds on Twitter: www.twitter.com/MarciaReynolds
UNDP - Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment - Gender ...
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Gloria Steinem - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
I get excited when I find women on the same page with me and the numbers ARE growing - some men also are waking up! It has been the illusion of a fear-driven mental ego sense of self that has the state of corporate structure and the world at large in the condition that it is in today. It is not sustainable nor healthy for men or women to continue the paradigm of aggression, greed and repression of self-expression, including healthy emotional expression.
It's time to make friends with change and emotion as repressing the qualities of feeling, intuition, creativity and collaboration is at the root of stress and the destructive effects we see on both the level of human relationship with each other and our collective relationship with our planet. When we consciously awaken to the healthy feminine aspects of human beings in males and females and also consciously remember what a healthy masculine expression even looks like (assertiveness does not have to be aggressive; self-sufficiency does not have to be greedy - aggression and greed are based on insecurity and fear) we can live as whole individuals and as an interdependent society.
Bringing back into our awareness the natural flow/blend of masculine and feminine in both men and women is the door to a paradigm of abundance and healing for our collective society and our planet.
Valencia Ray, MD
http://www.ValenciaRay.com
I agree it that women are coming more and more into their own, and that will be a good thing for men, women, and children. Gender equality and parity in all aspects of life will create better relationships and a better world.
I believe one of the greatest challenges we face, and will continue to face as women step more into their own power, and into positions of power across the board, is that many men will feel increasingly threatened by the changing role of women in society. As a tragic consequence, I expect levels of violence against women ( e.g.: trafficking for the purposes of prostitution and sexual slavery, abuse, rape, incest, murder, etc.), will also rise.
I strongly feel that women must positively engage men in the process of achieving gender equality, and show them how they too will benefit from a more equitable world, in an effort to reduce this backlash of violence.
Thanks again for a great post.
May the next decade of the woman bring this last percentage to pertain to the number of women in Congress! Idealistic I know, but great to hope to see one day...
"Men have become sick with ego, sick with greed, lost in confusion. They are no longer leaders, so their children do not learn, and the children wander aimlessly through life, without spirit. A human without spirit is like a ship without a sail. All you can do is float around, hoping to find a harbor.
"The Grandmother told me that in these times it will be the women who come to listen to these ways. It is the women who will remember who they are. Because women have lived for many thousands of years now, knowing who they were but never being able to speak the truth through their mouths. When the people left the Good Red Road and began to walk the black ribbon of road, the women were suppressed because the women kept warning the men that they were wandering from the ways...
"Heal the women. Then the women can heal the men, and together they can heal the earth."
I'm imagining a world run cooperatively by conscious men and women. How about you?
But believe me in cases where the sexes are reversed, if the opportunity is present for the man to take half of everything from his soon-to-be ex-wife, he'll take advantage of it as well.
Personally, I'm not a fan of those laws either, and I'm a woman. Such clauses create the necessity for pre-nuptial agreements, and I hate those as well. I don't think a person should be forced to owe their ex-spouse anything. If they really did you wrong, karma will get them in some form. The only thing that should be made a requirement is child support, of course.
PC has done damage, but not because it itself is bad. People are the problem. Seems most are not smart or educated enough to express their views both succinctly and without need to insult somone. It can be done but it takes practice.
There are women who have proven "you can have it all" in these positions, but those who have tell you about their supportive husbands (partners) and families, the time they did miss with their children, etc. Men in politics and corporate exec positions often have a supportive wife who helps make that happen, or they are single. I know women in elected office and corporations who are the same.
But I also know women whose husbands are, to outward appearances, supportive, but in real life, they are grudging about it and offer no support at home. These bright, accomplished women aren't having it all; they'd doing it all. I only know one man in these positions with that situation, and his wife still takes care of home and hearth, so while there's tension, it is not so one-sided .
Support enables achievement, regardless of gender.