I love this quote from fellow Harvard grad, Sheryl Sandberg:
“A truly equal world would be one where women ran half our countries and companies and men ran half of our homes.”
Statistically, we are a far distance from this goal since under 20% of countries and companies are headed by women and possibly fewer homes are run by men.
Yet, maybe the first place we can find equality is in the small realm of our own home and family. If each of us discussed with our partners a new plan that empowered us both, balanced the supporting chores like shopping, cleaning, and cooking between us, and the children felt equal involvement from both parents across the car pools, sports meets, and homework, plus financial and other major decisions were made through discussion and collaboration — then we would be creating a microcosm of the world we want to create. From this environment our children would be learning to expect and replicate equality in their outer world.
And what about our internal landscape. Do we give equal weight to our own feminine and masculine sides? Do we nurture ourselves? Do we listen to our intuition? Do we take time to ensure our own bodies are not polluted and abused? If we balanced our inner masculine and feminine how might that improve our intimate relationships, our families, our daily world?
Maybe we are closer to achieving this outer goal of equality than we realize. Maybe it will require some honesty about our inner landscape. And maybe the result won’t be men running half of the homes and women running half of the companies and countries. However, it must be that women feel empowered to create a life they choose and that the companies and countries they run, if they choose to, will listen to their feminine wisdom–not expect them to behave like men. It must be that men are allowed to be fully engaged in their families, expect to pick up half of the “home making” duties, and are empowered to bring their masculine strengths to the running of a family home–not behave like a women.
Whatever the current reality is; we can change it. Women and men will hold equality in leadership–it is possible. It will take women finding our voice, speaking our truth, and expecting others to listen. It will require listening to their truth. It will require vision, courage and determination. And most importantly, it will require women honoring women–in all walks of life, in all positions, in all ways. If we were boldly supporting each other, no man or organization could keep us down. And from a position of strength we can better learn to honor our male colleagues in a way that empowers greatness in us both.
When we learn to honor each others’ strengths, invite other people’s wisdom into the conversation and look for collaborative solutions–we will find our world gentler, more enlivening and prosperous!
Isn’t that the goal, really?
