The Road from V-Day to Everyday

In my book, Independence Ring: Rock the Female Revolution, I summarize wise teachings I gleaned from a Buddhist teacher many years ago.  Women are innately more powerful than men, he said, because of their ability to conduct life force and transmute energy more rapidly.  Threatened by the power of women, men over the past millennia have tried to suppress that power in every way, to the point that women themselves began to believe in their lesser power. 

On March 4, in the Huffington Post, Daniel Amen, MD. reiterated the points made above. 

"Our world needs a change in leadership...What I'm talking about here is the gender balance: the distribution of power and leadership between men and women...While most companies have male CEOs and most leadership positions in the U.S. and abroad are held by men, the "CEO part of the brain" -- the prefrontal cortex, which governs things like judgment, organization and planning -- is actually stronger in women, suggesting that women, not men, are a better suited to hold positions of power and are probably better equipped to change our world than men."


Women are innately suited to handle and express power.  Period.  So why then, from the 1BillionRising spirit of V-day on February 14 to now, just three weeks later, have so many words of disparagement about women been spoken?  Just ten days ago, the Academy Awards, broadcast to hundreds of millions of people around the globe, descended into low-vibe gender stereotyping as Seth McFarlane, program host, ranted about women who had shown their breasts on film (in many great films, actually).  The evening is well summarized in Amy Davidson's New Yorker article on "Oscar's Hostile, Ugly, Sexist Night."

Just a few days ago, watching "Makers" on PBS (you can still see the entire, three-part documentary on your computer, and it's a wonderful three hours), one of the film's opening scenes struck me as emblematic of the situation that women throughout the world still face today.

In one of the opening scenes from 1967, Kathrine Switzer, then a 20-year old student at Syracuse University, describes her decision to run the Boston Marathon.  At that time, women were not allowed to run in the marathon as they were deemed incapable of running 26 miles.  One the race began, she had run for several miles with her coach and her boyfriend when a press truck came up behind her.  On the truck was Jock Semple, a man in his sixties, and organizer of the race.  Video is shown of Jock leaping off the truck and attempting to mug Susan.  The look on his face -- horror, anger, hatred -- are priceless.  According to Switzer, he hissed at her, "I will not let a woman ruin my race."  Were the demeaning and misogynist cracks about women broadcast around the world recently by the Academy Awards any different?  Not really.  They were based in the same deep misunderstanding.

The false tradition of demeaning the power gender on the planet is still happening.  It is entrenched, and women need to be vigilant to push back until the truth -- expressed by Dr. Amen, myself and others emerges.  Women are the suited-for-power gender.  They should comprise 51% or more of leadership positions, and women need to know that.

March is Women's History Month.  Happy month!  Here is a fine summation by Marlo Thomas of women who made it through the deep-rooted, institutional repression of women to achieve great breakthroughs in math, science, technology, medical research and more.  I am encouraged by the many women I see who push for progress, and also by the many men I observe, know and work with who are comfortable with the power of women.

I encourage women to wear an Independence Ring -- a commitment to become truly, positively powerful.