How can society be in balance and harmony when there are so few women in positions of power?

Question

How can human society be in balance and harmony when there are so few women in positions of power and feminine values are so minimized in all areas?

This question was asked at the Dropping Knowledge event on 9th September by David Woolfson, 52, Toronto, Canada. To find out more about Dropping Knowledge check out our blog:

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Answer 1

What does 'balance and harmony' have to do with women in positions of power?

Are you saying that men are incapable of having 'balance and harmony'? Isn't that a terribly sexist statement?

If I give you a huge benefit of the doubt, I could focus instead in 'feminine values' and interpret it as the yin as opposed to the yang, the intuitive, as opposed to the logical... This has NOTHING to do with someone's gender, but how balanced someone is in terms of the yin and yang sides.

The Yin is minimised in the Western society because logic and action, and strength are prized above all. The capitalist system rewards action, aggression even, and focuses on the self.

Harmony will return, by itself. Nowadays we see more and more people trying to get in touch with themselves; people are finding their lives empty despite material well-being.

People are willing to pay more for 'fair trade', or articles with environmental labels. People are getting more conscious of their impact on the planet, and are willing to pay for this belief, using the system.

This is just the beginning.

Smarter corporations are realigning themselves to take advantage of this shift in the market place. Even oil companies are advertising their environmental records...

It is a trend that will only grow stronger, and sooner or later the Yin will dominate.

Answer 2

First, you might just as well ask why there are so few *men* in positions of power. For example: There are nearly 150 million men and boys in the U.S. Of these, one is President, about 500 are in Congress, and the remainder of the 150 million are not. So if human society has a problem with power, the biggest problem is that so few people, men or women, have power over their own lives.

Second, if you ask why "feminine values" are minimized, you will have to define what feminine values are. I would guess that if you do, such values will mostly turn out to be values that many or most men share as well. Men and women are different, certainly, but not completely. A good example: it is said that men are cool and rational while women are emotional and irrational. But turn on a football game and see whether more women or more men get emotional and irrational over it. Seriously; the stereotypes don't tell the whole truth.

Lastly, I'm not sure if any true "balance and harmony" can be achieved in society, as that doesn't seem to be the natural state of the universe. Just look how difficult it is to achieve now, when resources are in relative abundance, and then wait until we start facing scarcity or threats to survival (such as the Sun's eventual death). Conflict and war seem to be an essential, if tragic, part of the human experience.

Oh, one more note: there are around three billion women and girls in the world. If they want to change their place in society (whichever society that may be), there is certainly strength in numbers.

Answer 3

Given the fact women have babies, and so many women "choose" to stay home rather than entering the work force, and governmental positions. I don't feel the reasoning would be the out of harmony as one might think. I do agree more women should be in power, but I'm not convinced many women want to be in power. How about a wake up call here? More women control the household, the finances, and influence the family convictions than any study would reveal. An example would be; many women might choose to raise children that are not even their own children, while some have babies like a factory putting out product and choose to use this to get governmental aid. Take away this free money, Soap Opera's, and the fact many women don't want a job, the playing field suddenly seems more level. Add to the mix the number of women who drop out of school due to pregnancy, it's obvious (most) women are not in power because they don't want to be. This brings the number of women who want to be in a power position to a handful. These are facts! If you don't believe me, just ask your wife "who wears the pants in the family" who runs things and makes "all" the decisions in the family. Back as far as the cavemen days, women stayed home took care of the children while the men folk went out, and did the hunting and trapping to keep the food on the table. Some people don't wish to accept their roles in life, and that seems to be the few that rise above and are in power positions. Male mentality is "why put her in a position, when she will get pregnant, and we'll loose her in a few months anyway." If women work part time in between having children, does any place of employment take serious a person that just works part time? How you precieve balance and harmony, is far from how the world see's balance and harmony. Some countries don't allow women to show their faces in public, if the women accept this and go along with this, then that is the balance they choose, so they can live in harmony. When women no longer have children, it will be possible for there to be true balance in power positons, or they can just run it from home like they have for years. Men don't care to admit this, but it is true. If you don't believe that, just ask my wife, she'll tell you! Have a Good Day!!

Answer 4

Why would you assume that there would be any harmony in society with more women in positions of power, and with more affirmation of feminine values? Your premise that there somehow needs to be a balance between men and women in social positions is false - we are all individuals and the interests and values of the individual are what we are aiming for. Therefore - the idea of some artificial balance between men and women etc, has no meaning. A society is in balance when it is in balance - no amount of artificial engineering will achieve that balance, and is more likely to disrupt balance than to create it. If you wish to analyse this further - since any society is in a state of permanent flux, there can never be the possibility of balance, since the best that can be attained is a permanent striving for balance. Thus any imposed solutions such as artificial 'balances' are failures before they start.

Answer 5

This is a marvellous Q indeed, and as it is obvious, you received a lot of very different answers.
I was interested in giving you my opinion in order to confirm what you have stated in the Q!
I will be limited in the developed world and I will specify in my field, as it is a huge argument - woman's acceptance as an "equal" entity, depends on educational, cultural and religious beliefs that are very different worldwide - so, it is difficult to manage all the different aspects in so little space!
As a pharmacist, I have learnt to use my pharmaceutical balance to weight everything. It is obvious that if we want to achieve equilibrium in the balance we have to put the same weight in both parts. Left and right. The same is valid for our society.
Our society is composed by various entities and if we want to have a balanced life and live in harmony, every single component has to weight the same. Not to be the same but weight the same.
All voices have to be heard. But they do not.

A previous answerer has argued that women have to behave like women, adopt and keep their traditional role but I'm going to disagree with him.
Women have never refused their nature and the balance and harmony is achieved when are fulfilled all the different roles in the society. Let's take into consideration that feminin values are evolving, are changing with time.
Giving everyone the same oportunities so that they will produce at their full potential, is a clever and democratic action.
Without any intention for cheating, I will comment also another phrase because I consider it constructive for the discussion flow.
It has been mentioned that women should never be in positions of power, because they are emotional and illogical.
I will remind that to accomplish great things, we have not only act, but also dream; not only plan but also believe (Anatole France).
I will be glad if I will find the question open in order to provide you with some statistics and comment them.
Thank you again for the Q. We hope that our participation was constructive.

katerina

Answer 6

Harmony and balance are subjective measures and so is power for that matter. What exactly are feminine values? Is there a list of non feminine values? How would a perceived balance and harmony in society be achieved by having more women in positions of perceived power?

I think I'll watch the game, that is if the women will let me.

Answer 7

Society has never and probably will never be in balance and harmony. I'm a woman and praying that we get a woman president. This is not only about women not in positions of power, but what about Native American, African American, Hispanic and anyone not 'white' or 'male'? It's still the white men who are the prime leaders of this country and it's sicking! There is so much corruption in the government that is just be looked over. Why is it being looked over? Because other people feel they don't have the power. Look at Connecticut's last governor, John Rowland. He accepted monetary favors from people that he did 'favors' for, he was thickly involved with Enron, a lot of the money from Connecticut's budget is still missing and all he got was a couple of years in jail! If it was a Hispanic woman that robbed a gas station to feed her five children she probably would have gotten ten to fifteen years. The glass ceiling is thicker than ever, especially with the president and his administration that we have now.

Answer 8

Well society will never been in harmony and balanced unless we overthrow all organised religion, as in many of the religions; christianity, judaism and muslim (not exclusive) have all decreed by some person of power as females to be inferior.
If the world began a completely new slate, no religion, no state laws etc. Only then will the world be equal, but not harmonious.
For harmony will never come until the extinction of the human race as sooner or later if only 2 people were left on the Earth, they will grow tired and bored and end up hating one another.

FOR MODS
I'm not being discriminatory, i'm expressing my personal opinion and should NOT be relied on as fact.

Answer 9

Balance is not the same as being totally equal in all things. If men and women were EXACTLY the same, what would be the point of having two sexes...besides procreation. Balance is achieved when two parts TOGETHER form a BETTER whole...ying and yang, if you will...which means that one side's strengths BALANCES the other side's weaknesses...and vice versa.

I concede that men hold more positions of power than women, but the old saying of "behind every great man is a woman" is very profound. Women provide the balance that forces men to consider the emotional /social impact of their decisions. On the other hand, men restrain women from reacting totally from an emotional perspective. Cold, hard logic does have a purpose in running a country, as does compassion.

Answer 10

Too many women have gained acceptance into decision making positions using masculine mindsets and then discover that they would rather be elsewhere. They need to stay where they are and train others of both genders that things can be more harmonious if (and when) conflictive debate is more and more often recognized as a waste of time when certain problems (not all of course) need durable lasting solutions. The mother of Socrates was a midwife and nothing he may have thus learned and written survived for us to read today. Mothers hurry first word learning, and all we know about the method he used to search out the truth is from Plato, and others. Plato's legacy of distortion for dramatic effect continues with his student Aristotle who continued the move away from a harmonious "reality" by writing that slavery was fine and women are inferior. - let me just stop here cuz you never really know whether this matters or not - since Heraclitus wrote that war is the father of all... oops I will practice some self-control...

Answer 11

The world is in harmony and balance. Women's role in positions of power is a very recent adaptation to modern society. Positions of power typically go to people that are more competitive. Men are more competitive than women, it is probably an evolutionary trait derived from our history as animals.
Look at the figures of Scandinavian countries that are heralded for being the most progressive. Women occupy more positions of political power and in Norway that is even mandated by law. However, the political positions pay much much less than the positions filled by Scandinavian buisiness leaders, which are overwhelmingly dominated by men. If money equals power, the balance is staying the same, the jobs are just different.