Hot news, RIGHT OFF THE PRESS, woman are hotwired differently from men. Can you believe it?!? Ths point has been to me at least 10,000 times during my life, mostly by men. I have no recollection of every arguing the point. To the speaker, the message is that these differences are proof of superiority. They are bigger and more powerful so they win. Not so fast.
Power is, I will grant, mostly in the hands of men but the questions remains if they earned it or use is wisely or have they just had it so long, that is seems like the norm. Too much of the male style is portrayed as the “norm”. Leadership must be macho or it is suspect. And leaders never admit weakness; never apologize and never withdraw. These are male traits but are they more valid than a style more feminine; collaborative and conciliatory?
You may get frustrated with woman for being sentimental and too soft but surely there is some good in kindness and surely this world, awash in aggressiveness could use more.
November 26, 2007 at 7:11 pm |
Yes, we are hard-wired differently than men: women have a LARGER corpus colosum… that means we can process information back and forth from left brain to right brain many, many times faster than men. WE can thus integrate the logical/verbal instantaneously with the visionary/intuitive. I can see why this would frighten some men to accept.
And, THIS is what scares them to death… so much so that they have had to diminish this ability by labeling it: “women’s intuition.”
I knew a man once who kept harping on me that if I couldn’t explain HOW I reached my conclusions in a neat, linear way then they weren’t of any value and he couldn’t accept or use them.
What I didn’t know then is that we DO reach conclusions in a logical way: we simply reach them faster than thought.
I remember my frustration when I knew as certainly as I was standing there that I was correct in my conclusion, or theory but, not being able to tear it down into progressive ideas I was unheard, invisible… diminished.
As women we need to begin to own what we know. We do not have to EXPLAIN how we know it, we simply have to stand in our shoes and hold onto our own power, our own “knowing,” our own way of being.
So many women don’t know about any of this. Those of us who do, need to share and educate…
And, yes, we can change the world-as-it-is if we create a community of women.