Guest Post for Random Saturday
Positions of Power
A video circulating on Facebook left me a little rattled this week. It was lamenting the absence of women in positions of "power". Don't get me wrong, I'm not against women in politics, or executive offices, or Supreme Court benches. I just don't think any of those positions are 'true' seats of power and I don't think women's lack of desire to participate in such male-designed and male-dominated institutions is at all a bad thing.
Women do not need to sit in domed rooms and listen to hours of gibberish and play political backroom games in order to have influence in our society and our world.
After all, we were not dominating the political scene when we gained our
right to vote, equal rights under the law, and equal pay. Women know how to influence, how to wield power, how to change things at all levels—without having to dedicate themselves to the boring, ritualistic, and time-consuming male institutions that so many seem to think are all-powerful.
I ask men to quit lamely trying to recruit us to your political parties, science symposiums, and engineering faculties. We know what roles we want, what roles we are good at, and what we want to do with our lives. Quit worrying about us and speaking of "glass ceilings" and the nepotism of 'the old boys' club.
Women dominate the landscape of true power—we are the ones exercising mat leave, running the Day Cares, sitting behind the teachers' desks in the elementary school class rooms. We already inhabit the positions of real
power—no need to become corporate executives, party leaders, engineers…we are the mothers, teachers, mentors, nurturers of such men, and therein lies our power.
Come on, people—the hand that rocks the cradle and wipes the tears, and bandages the skinned knee is the hand in which true power lies. These are the hands and hearts and minds which are moulding the new generation, the new society, the new world.
We ladies got power, and for generations we've known how to use it wisely. We're doing fine, guys—continue on without us.
Please.
Eileen
Schuh, Author of THE TRAZ, Schrödinger's Cat
Sample/purchase THE TRAZ: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005199RFE
Sample/Purchase
Schrödinger's Cat: http://amzn.to/nhT0PX
Web site: http://www.eileenschuh.com
