Good morning!
Last week I wrote this article, hit submit at the Huffington Post site, and then sat on the couch, shaking in my boots.
I sent a little message via twitter saying exactly that, and some lovely readers like Nicole and Tanja reminded me that shaking was a good sign, that it meant I’d written from the heart and not let fear get in my way.
So here it is, people, The World Will be Saved by Western Women. I hope it resonates with you. Or that if it doesn’t, you’ll share your view in the comments.
I hope it will call us into more of who we can be.
Love,
Tara
The World Will Be Saved by Western Women
I recently had coffee with two women friends. They are smart, capable women. They have quality degrees and impressive work experience. For the last several years, they’ve been focused on taking care of their families. Their spouses make enough income that they can afford to do that.
For the first time in my life, I looked at these women and thought, I have a problem with this. I felt upset and frustrated that women so full of love, so intelligent and ethical and affluent–in other words, women with so much power to do good–were having an impact primarily on their families, and not on a larger sphere. Not in 1950, but in 2010. Read More….
Tara,
Thank you for the acknowledgment! This is definitely a powerful article. Congrats!
I have to acknowledge that I am not Superwoman. We can have everything we want, just not at the same time. Right now, I want to raise my toddler, keep my marriage healthy, write a book, earn my share of my family’s finances (part-time), contribute to society, and remain a helpful daughter and friend.
I hope my books will help the world with their positive, eye-opening messages about mental illness. I hope spending lots of time with my son will help the world by contributing a functional adult man someday. I hope my financial donations will allow my chosen causes to help the world. That’s the most I can do in this decade. Once my son and future kids are a bit older, I plan to join all the kick-ass women of the West directly changing the world. But, I can’t have that right at this minute, and I have to hope that’s enough.
Tara, thank you for your brilliant article (and for commenting on my post about it on my fledgling little whiteninja blog!). It was so inspiring and so perfectly timed. I firmly believe in everything you say in your article and I think the more people (and women in particular) who recognise what you believe and trumpet this fact, the better this world will become. Thank you for pressing ‘submit’ and taking the chance to shake about yor article!
Erin.
I had the privilege of hearing His Holiness speak at the California Women’s Conference in 2006. There he made this remark:
“I have always believed that women have a unique role in society. Women have a special capacity to lead us to a more peaceful world with compassion, affection and kindness.
His talking points were based on the idea that if more women were in places of power throughout the world, it would be a much different place than it is today…for the reasons he listed in the above quote.
At the risk of blowing up the bubble here, I think it’s important to keep His Holiness’ words in context and in the spirit. He was talking about feminine principles and energy, as much as literal ‘femaleness’.
It doesn’t take a high powered/high paying job, a string of college degrees, or even a vagina to invoke the qualities of compassion, kindness and affection. I think there might be a danger here of a real ‘us vs. them’ mentality if we’re not careful – whether it’s the “Western” woman saving “everyone else” or even just a broadening of the gender gap.
Practicing love – showing consideration for our fellow humans – and extending respect for all of life aren’t any more ‘feminine’ in nature than war, greed, and hyper consumptive consumerism are ‘masculine’.
In a time when most of the women I know are simply trying to put food on the table, find money to pay the rent/mortgage, raise conscientious and compassionate children, and take care of themselves….it seems a heavy burden to add “saving the world” on top of that. As if what they are doing isn’t enough.
In fact, the idea that what we are already doing isn’t enough is very much a masculine energy – the Yang of “action” and “results” and “conquer”.
Feminine energy is about allowing… receptivity…nurturing and healing.
Are we going to assume the masculine energies, then, in order to save the world as “women”?
Saving the world will be much like creating peace is. Gandhi’s famous quote says to BE the change, not DO the change.
Some of us were created to be “world savers”. Some of us were created to be “family savers” or “environment savers”. Some of us were created to be in the spotlight and some not. Whatever our piece of the puzzle is – large or small – if we all do our part, we might all get out of here alive. Together.
Male and female and everyone inbetween 🙂
Tara,
thanks for mentioning me! You inspire me on finding my way through all the fear! I could relate so much to your shaking, cause that’s what I am feeling right now, most of the time. It means I’m on the right way! So is your article!
Thanks for everything and keep on rockin’!
Love how your candor is inttrewined with humor and then expertly blended into a really solid, valid point.As a female entrepreneur traveling many months of the year while simultaneously raising two children under the age of five, it’s reassuring to know that other women share my plight or, as I see it, fortune. I love what I do. And how lucky that my children have the ability to see their mother breaking boundaries in a male-dominated industry. Is there any better inspiration for a young girl than seeing her own mom making changes in the world?I recently saw Cindy Novotny, author of Living With No Balance and Loving it speak and her message to all of us is that balance isn’t for everyone a life spent at the spa isn’t always the key to happiness. Some of us thrive on the nonstop stimulation and pressure of building a business.Thanks for the fantastic message of support and the gentle reminder that we all need to challenge each other in order to achieve our highest potential.Midori Connolly