Who is your favorite woman in history?
Katherine Hepburn, Susan B. Anthony, Harriet Tubman, Amelia Earhart, Lucile Ball, Meryl Streep, Gloria Steinem, Eleanor Roosevelt, Michelle Obama, Oprah, Emily Dickinson, Frida Kahlo, Ella Fitzgerald, Madonna, Aretha Franklin, Maya Angelou, Florence Nightingale, Marie Curie, Jane Goodall, Barbara Walters, Elizabeth Warren, Eva Peron, Indira Gandhi, Helen Keller, Princess Diana or Malala Yousafzai?
The contributions of these women to the world is likely 100 times more important than anything their male counterparts have ever done. The simple reason is that each of these women could not just stand up and share their greatness with the world like men can.
The women not only did the inner work necessary to discover their inner calling and purpose, and stand out like all great leaders must. But they had to endure what no man ever had to. Every door a man could close on them they closed, and every chance a man had to slander them, they did. Society and religions and governments all run by men, belittled women and treated them as second class citizens.
But these women hold the spirit of the feminine, of the mother Mary.
No matter what they did in the world, these women have been fighting for equal rights and the right for all women to share their brilliance and allow the feminine to take her rightful place beside her masculine counterpart, not behind or below.
God knows that the men who run the world right now have not managed their greed and aggression very well, and really could use a little help opening to compassion rather than being able to pee higher on the wall than the other countries.
There is a funny thing about power. Real power is humble. Real power is loving. Real power shares wealth and resources with everyone. Real power has compassion and knows that we are all only as good as the worst among us. Real power is caretaking of its children and sees every person on the planet as their child. Real power sees our planet that gave birth to humanity as our mother, not something to strip, mine and pollute till she dies. Real power gives birth to new life and caretakes the elderly.
Real power is the feminine. There are some men who can hold it, but mostly real sacred power is held by women.
Since real power is the feminine, that is why we see the men in power today living in such fear and with such anxiety and aggression, they don’t have the capacity for real power or the ability to lead without their feminine counterpart, so they overcompensate.
Our current culture and patriarchal government lead by Donald Trump has no real power, and is still as discrimating towards women as cultures of the past 1000 years, they just have learned how to appear more sympathetic to women during election cycles.
Trump tweeted today, “I have tremendous respect for women and the many roles they serve that are vital to the fabric of our society and our economy.” Not sure who wrote that for him. I think after his long history of womanizing and recent comments about women, this may not be the whole truth. An apology and a seat at the table would have been more appropriate today.
But Trump is just one of thousands of terrified power wielding men that every one of these amazing women had to deal with, swallow their pride around, feel the discrimination and still do whatever it takes for the good of all people.
So let’s give all these women, and all the millions of women who have done what is necessary in a prejudiced world to keep the heart of compassion alive, the credit that is due. They are the strong ones. They are the ones who in the end will be as Jesus prophesied when he said, “The meek shall inherit the Earth.”
Someday our children will go to their mothers, not their fathers, when a serious problem arises, because everyone will know that men are good hard workers and mean well, but should never be left in charge of anything important. 🙂
Then every day will be International Women’s Day. Yay!!!