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WOW Excerpt - Millionth Circle: Tranforming Ourselves and the World (Jean Shinoda Bolen's chapter)
The Millionth Circle: Transforming Ourselves and the World
If we are ever to have a post patriarchal world, it will begin in the United States, and it will begin with the generation of women over 50. There has never, in the history of the world, been such a generation of women in numbers or potential. There are over thirty million of us, who, thanks to the women’s movement, medical advances, and reproductive choice, have had opportunities, access to resources, education, travel, a range of know-how, and connections with each other and to others in the world. Each of us may have two or three active decades in which to make a difference. The fate of our planet also hinges on what humanity does—or what women individually and collectively can and will do, in this same short span of time.
It’s our turn. If we do not make it into a post-patriarchal world, then we will have failed. That’s really the message that I have felt in my bones. We have been under patriarchy for four thousand years—from the time history has been written—and it is time for the circle. Patriarchy is about hierarchy. It is a structure that enforces and expresses authority and power. In contrast, the circle is egalitarian and collaborative. To have a place in the hierarchy is about persona, often about posturing and the need to be aggressive. To seek power over others doesn’t nourish the soul.
Male leadership cannot change the fundamentals of masculine hierarchy. For there to be a balanced world where those without power matter, empowered women such as we can be, need to speak for the children, women, animals, and for our beautiful planet itself. Women’s wisdom, experience and compassion are missing when decisions that affect us all are made.
If we are ever to have a post patriarchal world, it will begin in the United States, and it will begin with the generation of women over 50. There has never, in the history of the world, been such a generation of women in numbers or potential. There are over thirty million of us, who, thanks to the women’s movement, medical advances, and reproductive choice, have had opportunities, access to resources, education, travel, a range of know-how, and connections with each other and to others in the world. Each of us may have two or three active decades in which to make a difference. The fate of our planet also hinges on what humanity does—or what women individually and collectively can and will do, in this same short span of time.
It’s our turn. If we do not make it into a post-patriarchal world, then we will have failed. That’s really the message that I have felt in my bones. We have been under patriarchy for four thousand years—from the time history has been written—and it is time for the circle. Patriarchy is about hierarchy. It is a structure that enforces and expresses authority and power. In contrast, the circle is egalitarian and collaborative. To have a place in the hierarchy is about persona, often about posturing and the need to be aggressive. To seek power over others doesn’t nourish the soul.
Male leadership cannot change the fundamentals of masculine hierarchy. For there to be a balanced world where those without power matter, empowered women such as we can be, need to speak for the children, women, animals, and for our beautiful planet itself. Women’s wisdom, experience and compassion are missing when decisions that affect us all are made.
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