There is an amazing legacy project that starts today and runs for the next week – that you can access from the comfort of your home. It’s called the Inspiring Women Summit.
The Summit is directed toward women for sure – as the primary demonstrators of feminine energies on the planet – in an effort to support them in greater use of the power of the feminine viewpoint and approach in the world. And we here at Creating Legacy support that, because we want to see the power of the feminine viewpoint get stronger in terms of the way the world works. Cultivating and nurturing a culture of contribution – living a legacy approach to life – certainly embodies that.
However, while the word feminine – just check the dictionary – is most often defined with sex and gender characteristics, feminine and masculine (for that matter) are gender neutral terms. Each of us possesses both feminine and masculine traits. A great comparison of those qualities is available here (you may have to adjust the items under the proper columns depending on how it shows up on your computer, but you can download the Google version into Word).
It is really how culture and sex role stereotypes have influenced you that will determine how comfortable you will be with expressing the feminine or masculine qualities you have access to. And the context you are operating in will also be an influence – or a challenge to rise above and choose to use a different tool than the expected.
When I was training to be and practicing as a Registered Nurse, most nurses were female. Not all. But despite the highly scientific and technical aspects of the nursing profession, the fact that it was founded on caring put it squarely in the feminine domain and thus only a few strong guys were attracted to it. That is not so true anymore.
Unlike my female predecessors and pioneers in the law, who may have been one of 5-10% of women in their law school classes, when I went through law school, my class was about 30% female. Today, in both medicine and law – both previously the provinces of men – women make up about 50% of the graduating classes. The focus on reading, research, writing, oratory and advocacy skills that make up legal education are clearly “something girls can do” … well, and thus do well in practice, too. But historically, culturally, lawyers were men – not because women were not capable. Even the skill sets of the law might be considered feminine in nature when compared with the hard physical labor of construction or combat jobs …
I’ve had two previous careers that gave me a lot of opportunity to consider the difference between a feminine and masculine approach to the subject matter and related tasks of the work. I’ve seen males take a feminine approach to aspects of the work, and I’ve certainly seen (especially in law practice) females do their best to take on a masculine approach to the work – often thinking that is what they had to do to ‘compete’ in the workplace or the courtroom.
Well, it’s not true. Either gender can use, hopefully the best of, the feminine or masculine energies in approach to their work. What’s great about the Inspiring Women Summit is that we’ll get a chance to explore more of the feminine approach – as well as how women can emerge as stronger leaders in the world. In my view, it’s certainly time in history for a greater emphasis on the feminine, from everyone. And no, I’m not trying to be emasculating as some in the culture might suggest. I’ll be the first to take on and use masculine energies when I need to. It’s just that I know the difference … have a more varied toolbox perhaps than folks who insist on sticking with rigid sex role stereotypes.
I have my parents to thank for this. They taught me that I could do whatever I wanted to do based on merit, not on gender.
I wonder how clear these distinctions are for the generation of women who follow mine. At the baby end of the baby boom and the leading edge of Generation X, I know the struggles of my predecessor women professionals and business owners – the trail blazers – that allowed me to be more of a pioneer with my work, discovering, designing, and building new approaches as opposed to just getting a foothold. How do the women who come after view their power (‘ability to do’) to take on the important work they have in life and then make amazing contributions they have to make? And their role – if not trail blazer or pioneer, how do we best characterize what they are up to?
Would love to hear your thoughts on that. Cheers, Dolly