What does gender-equality look like today?

What I often imagine is a world in which we really understand each other. For me equality begins with that: the willingness to understand.

BUT in order for us to understand the other and in order for us to make ourselves be understood we must understand ourselves.

In my opinion every important question starts with one self.

I will try to look at this from the angle of a woman because, well, I am a woman. And a feminist.

Why is this important now?

For a long time we had to seperate the evolution of the genders. The reason for this was that society hasn’t been accommodating to the nature of the women in the same way men were embraced.

Women had to fight for their rights and for it they had to exclude man from their development. Paradox don’t you think?

The evolution of the woman was based on the desire to be equal to men but what we didn’t understand was that we aren’t supposed to behave like them.

We are at a very interesting point in time in which feminism is moving past the exclusion of men from female evolution.

We are approaching men from a centred and more empowered angle through which we don’t have to use attack or aggression any longer.

We have learned to be soft and yet powerful in the way we are being with one another.

Why are we able to do that?

After years of acting like men, trying to fit into the patriarchy white men have created, we finally understand that we as women have to pave a new road.

A road very different from the one we have been travelling.

When we accept that we need a new way, we don’t fight as hard to be understood or acknowledged by men anymore because we put our energy into understanding ourselves and our natural way of leading and relating to the world.

With the acceptance and integration of our actual nature we are finally able to make a sustainable shift in gender equality.

So what does it mean to understand us as WOMAN today?

We are cyclic beings.

We are given proof of that from our menstrual cycle. Our hormones create seasons in a month that have us embody different creative energies.

In order for equality to arise, this fact must be accepted and included in all discussions of gender, relationship and politics.

How does cyclic life look like?

In the simplest way: We bleed, we rise, we ovulate, we let go, we bleed, we rise, we ovulate, we let go. Simpler yet: Winter, Spring, Summer, Fall.

In each of those season we are asked to show up differently in this world.

Let’s go through a cycle and see how the energies shift throughout.

In winter we are asked to separate from the outside and consciously breed the wisdom that is encoded in our body. We are internally focused and more reflective, given space and quiet. A lot is happening beneath the surface and we must have trust that our creative force is working in the unconscious. We are soft and vulnerable and aware that we know absolutely nothing for sure. We see more clearly what’s working and what isn’t in our lives. This is the most difficult for women in leadership positions because they have not much manifested evidence that growth is happening.

Spring is the rise of energy and therefore the rise of the female power. Creativity is coming back to the surface and our life begins to gain back a certain charge that is sometimes hard to hold. It’s still a time of vulnerability and an integration of our intentions we called forth in our inner winter time. We begin to be social again and start engaging more in our relationships. We invest into our jobs again and are more present during meetings and planning. We are able to formulate new ideas and get clearer on what it is that we need.

Summer is a time where those new and rising energies settle, confidence is highest and energy is rather linear, this is a time in which we are most outward because our energy matches the dominant worldly forces. Often women feel very powerful here and are fearing the other side of the coin (winter). We are in our doing, following impulses and are least connected to our inner world but somehow carried by it. This is a time where we are most productive and least reflective. Our ideas are meeting action and we are implementing more and more.

Fall is a time in which we let go of the things that don’t work. The things that came up during the cycle. It also has a certain charge that we are asked to hold in loving light. In general, if we aren’t tending to our inner world and health we might experience symptoms like PMS or other signs of discomfort during this time. Creativity is also very active here but not many new ideas are showing up, it’s rather a time to finish old projects and pending tasks. It’s also a good time to draw and paint and workout a little lighter. Do things without an end goal rather just for the sake of the doing. At work this time calls for cleaning up with co-workers, tasks, digitally and physically. And to prepare for winter and bleeding time. We are aware of a different impact than summer time.

Why is that important?

We’ve been asked to perform on demand (like men do) and when we don’t (because we aren’t meant to), we are called lazy, unpredictable or “moody”.

This “unpredictability” is the number one argument for men to say that we aren’t called to leadership. This argument is based on a false premise which is that in order to be a leader we must behave like men.

Imagine now that our cyclic nature is accepted by us women as the most natural way of living.

Imagine that we know we cannot perform in this linear way and that if we continue trying we are in fact “moody”, depressed and misunderstood.

It becomes a necessity to educate others about this nature of ours if we want to pave the new road and experience peace in the world.

We stop fighting because we know that living according to our cycle is the silent rebellion that is creating the shift we seek.

If we stop expecting men to “just know” how we work, we were able to explain, show and embody the differences that make us women.

What else needs to shift?

Imagine that the inner world of a woman is considered real and sacred just as it has been in ancient tribes.

Imagine that the cycle we go through is integrated into everyday life at work, in families, universities and schools, politics etc..

We could use the creative force of a woman at appropriate times for new ideas and let it incubate at others – we would know that it is still at work.

Women would be healthier, more productive, accepted, freer and more relaxed.

I am aware that even though more women are aware of this we are still challenged to implement it, mostly because our conditioned way is asking us to look outside for proof.

“Is this really true or all in my head?” “Am I making this up and actually just not disciplined enough?” “Where are the studies that I can use to give myself permission to believe it” and again “show men so they can accept it before I do?”

These questions lead us nowhere new and nowhere good.

When a woman understands herself and accepts what she understands, her nature is to give understanding to the world as well including men and their linear nature.

The fight between which way is the right way would end and a new era would begin. True Cooperation between the sexes.

We would go to better place – together! Different but equal with both genders fully integrated in this world.

Combined forces of the genders would pave the road we all are seeking.

What are your thoughts on this?

I would love to hear from you.

 

Love,

Jen