Restoring the power imbalance

Date: 21 February 2020 | Author: Edina de Jong – Hodzic

The International Women’s Day on 8th of March is approaching and I see lots of events being organised for women on the topic of diversity, empowerment, female power etc.
Although I encourage any initiative that brings out the best in women and men, I can’t completely agree with a ‘separation approach’. The topic of women empowerment is a human empowerment issue and needs to be addressed at collective level including men in the discussion.

Today’s women are the 2nd / 3rd generation of women in modern history participating in the economic model that men have been familiar with for centuries. Women have entered a ‘masculine system’ that has been built on masculine values and today we are competing at that level. As more women have entered the workforce and taken positions of power in business and politics in a ‘masculine’ system – woman have learned to adjusted themselves in order to survive. This is natural survival behaviour. Throughout history our female ancestors have adapted themselves and their definitions of power to what they observed in the outside world.

What we now see happening is that woman for decades have adjusted themselves to a masculine system and have disowned their natural feminine expression. To be fair, it wasn’t accepted from woman to express their feminine qualities in public arena where masculine expression was dominant, only in domestic arena while taking care of their families. And this has left woman with a big psychological scar. In this process woman have lost their true identity and authentic power, we’ve sacrificed it for our needs of survival.

In the last couple of decades there is an external push to have more diversity and woman in positions of power. Though, in reality there has not been a significant change in this area. Why? I believe it’s because the deeper truth behind this issue is not fully understood by the people that are talking about it. If we want to make a sustainable change in this area, we have to see and accept where we’re coming from. The starting point is that woman for centuries have been conditioned to express their masculine traits, though unconsciously they don’t want to be in those positions because those positions move them further away from their true nature of feminine expression. And that’s exactly where the authentic power and diversity of women will come from. Only when woman heal those old wounds and recover their true nature will they be able to step into their power fearlessly and make impact in this world.

When we look at the nature, everything always needs to be in perfect balance. And this is also true for human beings, you can only thrive when you’re in balance with your masculine and feminine expression. You need both to thrive! If one of those sides is dominant, it will cause suffering to the person. These are the laws of nature. 

So what I would like to suggest to all women looking for equality and empowerment – it’s WITHIN you – reclaim it! Connect to your thoughts, your emotions, your wounds, your deeper truth coming from your heart and you will find the empowerment that you’re looking for.
Women are deeply desiring to reconnect to their authentic powers and they will when they acknowledge the imbalance and reclaim a healthy and balanced feminine expression (intuition, compassion, wisdom, harmony, creativity etc.) and masculine expression (focus, discipline, purpose, accountability etc.). Connecting to your feminine nature is not an easy task, because we’ve disowned it for so long. Though, it’s the only way to achieve true fulfillment, to recover your diversity, to be at peace and in true connection with others.

This journey of empowerment is not a journey for women only, it’s a journey for man and the whole humanity. We’re all in this together, there is no competition and separation. When a woman empowers herself, she automatically gives permission to other woman and men to empower themselves.
When you empower yourself from within, you will know true empowerment and you will feel the call to empower others. True leaders throughout history have all done this. Take the example of Mandela, only when he found his inner power (in the prison where he spent 27 years!) he was able to empower others and lead his country to peace and unity.
And as a result of an inner change/shift, the outside system will start shifting to rebalance itself!

In ancient cultures (more than 4.000 years ago) woman were holding a central place within their communities (wise woman) and no decisions were taken without consulting them. Ancient women were very powerful. It was a power coming from within, not the external power that we identify with today.

By looking at men or the outside world and blaming it, nothing will change. One of the feminine qualities is to be compassionate towards others so I invite you to look at the men in your lives and connect deeply with them, you might recognise yourself in them – we’re all going trough the same journey. Let’s support each other and grow together.

To finish this blog I am sharing a short Zen story with a powerful meaning behind it:

A horse suddenly came galloping quickly down the road. It seemed as though the (wo)man had somewhere important to go.
Another (wo)man, who was standing alongside the road, shouted, “Where are you going?” and the (wo)man on the horse replied, “I don’t know! Ask the horse!”

The horse symbolizes our habit energy (archetypes). The story explains the way we usually live, at the mercy of our old habit energies which have been established not by our intentional actions, but by our surroundings and mindless activity.
The horse is pulling us along, making us run here and there and hurry everywhere and we don’t even know why. But as much as we run, it gets us nowhere. Only by stopping, reconnecting inside we can regain our power and direct the horse on the right path.

Happy Woman’s Day to All!