Let’s set the record straight.
My passion for empowerment does not just stop at the clear-cut frontier of “Women”.
It’s for the feminine, as a whole.
Gender inequality, as it is written and spoken about today, has mutated into a battle of the genitalia, with everyone rolling up their sleeves, ready to give their fiery input.
It makes sense: sides are pooled from the get-go. Every form or document coerces walls to be built by incurring a force-fed box-checking exercise: Men, Women, Non-Binary, Prefer Not to Say.
We delight in blossoming business statistics but, at a closer glance, they lose their color, as we realize that they only reflect Men and Women.
The gender gap in investment is not black and white. Its tentacles don’t stop at the topics of Men and Women in the sense of traditional gender: that would be too easy. Gender inequality is an onion with more layers than you might initially believe. Humans are more than their genitalia.
Our every waking moment is led by feelings, emotions, past positive and negative experiences, associations, and entrenched ways of doing and being. You experience life in polarity: the sun and the moon, inhale and exhale, day and night, light and dark, winter and summer. The human race (and the universe) require polarity to survive and thrive.
That’s not to say, they don’t also experience life in gray.
Think of it this way, if you didn’t understand what heartbreak felt like, you wouldn’t understand what love felt like. If you didn’t know what losing felt like, you wouldn’t know what winning felt like.
If you only ever dine in candlelight at Michelin Star restaurants every night for the entirety of your lucky lifetime, you would not see its value. Meaning is born from relativity.
Now you’re catching on.
This complex way of doing and being, of give and take, unlocks a beautifully complex perspective on business and adds weight to the argument that gender inequality is not limited to human anatomy.
The current economic system is steeped in masculine empowerment. Business and investment processes have been designed with love by the masculine for the masculine. In order to bring a healthy portion of gender equity to the table, the system requires uprooting and replacing with structures that empower both the masculine and the feminine.
Said a different way, masculine energy does NOT equal Men and feminine energy does NOT equal Women.
Women possess, use and live in both masculine and feminine energy.
Men possess, use and live in both feminine and masculine energy.
When humans live in excess, unhealthy or a masculine imbalance, the result is burn out. When humans live in excess unhealthy or a feminine imbalance, the result in a powerlessness. Balance is the cornerstone of success.
But what do I actually mean when I talk about the masculine or the feminine energy? What do they look like in the quotidian world we live in?
Feminine energy is to BE.
This pole highlights what it is to feel, to be spontaneous, intuitive, playful, as a community. Circularity, dynamism, vulnerability. You speak with the language of AND, which includes choice. This state is often referred to as ‘flow’ by professional athletes and other high performing individuals.
Masculine energy is to DO.
This pole underpins what it is to think, predict, run with the logical, focus on the individual, be results oriented, linear, sturdy, and to protect. You speak the language of either/OR (e.g. ultimatums).
Think of the creaking, forgotten-about foundations of a house: they are step one in a linear construction process, they predict stability, they are a prerequisite for results.
So how do these energies show up in business?
Masculine activities / energy:
Logical / Objective: When you make a mistake, you’re not afraid to admit you’ve made a mistake in your thinking. You see humility as being essential to growth and continued learning.
Burnout: Is an extreme masculine energy due to prolonged and excessive stress (emotional, physical, and mental exhaustion)
Feminine activities / energy:
Community: An inclusive or collective energy and collaboration between many while working together or toward a common cause.
Passive: The belief you have no personal autonomy, withhold information, and manipulate situations or people. Other people or circumstances are to blame.
Let’s take Steve Jobs. He made no hesitation in leveraging his feminine through his innovations and perpetual refusal to follow the status quo. His masculine was captured by his no-nonsense business approach, positively dripping with confidence. Some may argue too much masculine; however, I hope you see the common threads.
Empowering the feminine will bring harmony to inequalities, and evolve and mature the systems, structures, business scale, required in business.
When you empower the feminine, you empower everyone.
As a collective, we are stronger, smarter, and savvier in business and life. Stacy works with insatiably curious, highly ambitious executives and leaders who are ready to understand their unknown unknowns in business and life, fast. To work with Stacy, email enquiries to stacy@stacyidema.com
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