For thousands of years, patriarchal societies have systematically denied women’s rights, independence, and intelligence. From Ancient Greece to the Middle Ages, women were treated as minors and as property, literally “given away” in marriage, as possessions. In early modern Europe, under the patriarchal religion of the day, 40 000 to 100 000 “witches” were executed – most of them women. The US Constitution left women with zero rights and zero representation.
At the time, most of these patriarchal abuses were considered appropriate, just – even natural. Today, society would be appalled at the very thought of the witch-trials in the Inquisition, and think of not giving Constitutional rights to women as barbaric. But are we still making decisions based on patriarchal prejudice? In 150 years from now, will historians look back at our era as inhumane and barbaric? Let’s look at where we’ve been – and at where we still need to go. Not only the treatment of women, but in the context of poverty, the military and the way we treat our planet environmentally – we will look back at ourselves with disbelief.
Women’s suffrage
The “first wave” of the feminist movement was fighting for the right to vote, in the 19th and 20th centuries. Of course women had rebelled against their lot for hundreds of years before – most famously Christine de Pizan (15th century) and Mary Wollstonecraft, author of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, published in 1792. But only in 1918 did women get the right to vote in Britain – if they were over 30 and owned houses! In 1928, this was changed to all women over 21, while in 1920, all US women got the vote. For most of us, this means our grandmothers’ mothers couldn’t vote.
Equal rights
Having the vote didn’t bring equal treatment. Swathes of discriminatory laws remained and the prejudices of a patriarchal society were deeply embedded. Pay wasn’t equal, women lacked civil rights and family planning support, contraceptives were illegal in some US states, marital rape was legal, as was discriminating against pregnant women, the Military Academies didn’t accept women, and many universities and colleges were men-only. The “second wave” of feminism, in the 1960s and 1970s, campaigned against all this, with massive legal success – and they changed not just the laws, but also many of the social attitudes towards women.
Breaking the “glass ceiling”
Nevertheless, many of these attitudes persist, and changing the law doesn’t change people’s behaviors. The City of London, district of stockbrokers, is notorious for rampant sex-discrimination and New York’s Wall Street is no better. But the world is still changing.
With female Prime Ministers and Presidents elected all around the world and the additional influence of women within the three branches of the U.S. Federal Government, the glass is starting to crack. Women are graduating at a higher rate then men from college and about a third of family breadwinners are now women.
It’s easy, and tempting, to conflate women with feminine energy. Certainly, our cultures encourage men to develop masculine-energy traits & women to develop feminine-energy traits. Often, showing the opposite trait is heavily criticized – women are called “bitches”, men are called “wimps”, and so forth. But as the last post discussed, both sexes work better with both energies. Women having higher positions in society doesn’t necessarily mean they bring feminine energy. For one thing, not all women are necessarily dominant in “feminine” energy, plus those values are traditionally undervalued compared to the “masculine” counterparts, so achievement is often through masculine energy in both sexes. Nevertheless, as our society learns to revalue women, so it learns to revalue “feminine” values.
The “feminine” impact on society
In the United States, since the signing of 19th Amendment, many compassionate laws and social programs would soon follow in the United States. Social programs like unemployment benefits, Medicare and Medicaid, and social security were provided to the most vulnerable. The Civil Rights Act, the Equal Rights Amendment, and the Americans with Disability Act followed to protect the minority citizens of a society. These social programs, laws and amendment were about creating a more evolved and vibrant society, as proposed by FDR’s New Deal, JFK’s New Frontier, and LBJ’s Great Society . With the year 2012 upon us, the next “feminine” agenda should address saving our planet — how about BHO’s “New World”? These great social program and initiatives aren’t exclusively credited to women – but we can credit them to a renewal of feminine energy and values: the soft, inward, receptive, intuitive, creative, multi-tasking, compassionate, and loving.
Women’s impact on society
The empowerment of women has immense benefits for a society. When women are educated, baby and child deaths decrease and family health improves – regardless of whether the woman’s income changes. Their children are more likely to be educated, and to do better at school. The Microcredit Campaign found that women are a better credit risk, and the UNCDF proved they are more likely than men to invest new income in their families and societies – when a woman benefits, so does everyone around her. A World Bank report showed that societies that discriminate against women are poorer, with worse government, a lower standard of living, and slower economic growth. Women are less prone to corruption and nepotism, are more politically active when they’re educated, have a lower carbon footprint and are more likely to take personal action to help the environment. Women’s rights don’t depend on them being so all-round-brilliant, but it’s a foolish world that refuses to benefit from all this!
A mother lode of feminine energy
So, after thousands of years of patriarchies, it’s obvious what a positive impact this influx of feminine energy has had. Empowerment for women reaps extraordinary benefits. More feminine energy is essential to balance the yin & yang and unravel our current patriarchal world – and this burden should not be placed on women exclusively. With the year 2012 approaching, and the Age of New Enlightenment upon us, we need feminine energy to increase the vibration of the planet.
