Alternative Editorial: Shifting Power
Living in the UK we are witnessing a profoundly divided public space. This is not new - our party-political system has designed it that way.
However, this week's divide has reached a new emotional high with events in the Middle East. While the environmental catastrophe is still struggling to pierce the consciousness of the mainstream, the effects of war on hundreds of thousands of innocent people in Israel and Gaza has broken through.
But to what end? While the UK government lines up categorically behind Israel the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) remains agnostic. After a hundreds thousand people marched for the 'liberation of (the former) Palestine', a large gathering took place in Trafalgar Square demanding the release of the Israeli hostages, The conflict seems as sharp here as there, leading to an increase of attacks on both Jews and Moslems on the streets of London. We can be grateful that we are not yet, however, at war.
Meantime, the global call for a cease-fire is coming from all directions, including from within Israel and Gaza, although the United Nations struggled to get a resolution over the line. Those of us who cannot bear to see innocent people murdered by terrorists of any kind find it incomprehensible that some global leaders give permission to do unto others what they will not have done unto themselves.
Yet when we look at the role that trauma plays in the unfolding of events throughout (there are always more than two parties), it is easier to understand the intractability of protagonists on all sides. See here AG Co-initiator Pat Kane describe the extreme challenge to Israel’s fear complex presented by what is already called the October 8th war. See here for the plight of Palestinians living in Gaza.
While those raising their voices are undoubtedly from all genders, there is still a distinction to be made between masculine and feminine responses to conflict, evidenced through history? Historically men designed and led the public space through hierarchies of power - capitalist business and elitist politics. They disconnected the otherwise diverse ecosystem of people from each other, from nature and from their agency. Women stepping into that public space often channel that same masculinity; men stepping away from that space, often reject it.
Looking at the same historical evidence, women working in private spaces - personal, domestic and community - actively connected people to each other and nature with a view to creating care and support networks for the lives they felt responsible to. Men stepping into community, family or social work become active connectors. Women who leave it often reject it - or more often have to live double lives.
Hence, beyond male and female roles and histories of power something deeply contrasting and distinctive persists. Response to conflict that is essentially disconnected, having little empathy for universal human suffering, seeks above all to win the challenge in a zero-sum game of competing logic. This is very different from response to conflict that connects all parties and events and puts life itself first, seeking win-win outcomes in order to prevent future conflict.
The masculine action (a potential for both men and women) is often clothed in the righteousness of revenge, proportionality, justice - highly emotional words that deepen the disconnection between reactivity and reason. In the brain this looks like the triggering of the amygdala, short circuiting the frontal cortex, full of adrenaline. Even in this news-media jousting between two men supporting opposing sides - the comedian, calling for the protection of the innocent, is seeking above all to humiliate the interviewer. Humiliation - more than injustice - has proven to be the greatest trigger for anger and rejection amongst men.
The feminine action (again, available to both men and women) might well be equally urgent, but tends towards the survival of the whole community, the extremely vulnerable tending to be the largest in number. Coming from connectedness, capable of empathy, it calls for compassion and humanity. In the brain it is calling on perspective, whole system awareness, requiring serotonin and oxytocin.
Since we have never lived in an era in which women have dominated in government or business - controllers of the public space - the likelihood of a feminine response to national conflict has been low. 4th PM of Israel Golda Meir, embedded as she was in the military machinery of government, was no peace activist. Even so, she was intent on peace building while in power and heavily criticised for being 'off guard'when the Yom Kippur war broke out in 1973. She also made a distinction between assasinating the snipers of the Munich Massacre and any form of 'collective punishment' of innocent Palestinians. Not, one imagines, because she was soft but because she could empathise: she could imagine the impact on the cause globally if she treated civilians as collateral.
Until now, the wider international battlefield of competitive hard power (guns and money), has made it very difficult for any Israeli or Palestinian leader to advance a vision for peace. Superpowers take opposing sides to create proxy war zones in their quest for global dominance. While society remains caught in the crosshairs, extremists arise to offer quick solutions to old problems and governments become increasingly aggressive in defence.
Just before the war broke out in Israel, people were on the streets in protest at the macho behaviour of their leader, trashing the constitutional separation of church and state. Meantime, at the Gaza border, groups - largely led by women from both sides - were actively developing friendship and a common cause for the sake of all their families.
What better time to gather to inquire into the true nature of feminine intelligence and explore the possibilities that might arise from giving it our full attention? In the coming week the 6th FemmeQ Summit will gather in Strasbourg, France. Their programme is as follows:
OUR PURPOSE
To amplify the voices of women and empower those who are applying feminine intelligence to catalyse the transformation needed to create a flourishing future for all.
WHAT WE ARE DOING
We are connecting to strengthen our resolve, collaborating to broaden our reach, celebrating the progress made, and deepening our commitment to play our role in bringing about a cultural revolution and systemic shift essential for our future.
WHO WE ARE
We are transformation catalysts, applying the wisdom of feminine intelligence, for the shift in consciousness needed to achieve equitable, just, inclusive societies, and communities, respecting all sentient beings and Mother Earth.
THREE FOCUS AREAS
1. Ecology and Environment: Climate Action. Indigenous Wisdom. Respect for our natural world.
2. Peace Building: Gender and Racial Justice. Building societies free from violence.
3. Right Livelihood: Healing what has been broken. Earning a living with no harm to others.
Over four days, Co-founder and now Director of FemmeQ, Karen Downes is hosting 55 women and men from across the globe, including Elise Buckle, Co-founder of SHE Changes Climate, Dr. Sangeeta Sahi, founding President of Unified Human Foundation in the UK and USA, Scilla Elworthy, Co-founder of the Oxford Research Group, Peace Direct and now Business Plan for Peace, Natasha Sell, Co-founder with her husband Lorenz Sell (also attending) of Sutra, both designers of Transformational Learning Experiences Online and Noora Firaq, Deputy CEO at Climate Outreach.
AG Co-initiator Indra Adnan will do a keynote on the Feminisation of Politics. Karen Downes lays out the goals:
Feminine intelligence is the subtle yet potent sensibility and intuitive knowing that has been supressed in the human psyche for centuries. It is the ability to feel, sense and know that we are all interconnected. It is the tapping into and skilled use of instinct, intuition and deep listening to the heart, it is relational not intellectual.
Feminine intelligence exists in all of us, but over millennia the pursuit of power and control have condemned it as a weakness or vulnerability unique to women, unworthy of a place within mainstream society, economics or politics. This ancient wisdom is awakening, and its role is now critical.
This is the wisdom that forgives the past, protects life for future generations, and acts upon a deep inner knowing for what is right and needed. This innate knowing also acknowledges the integral role that women play in any society. Women experience cycles and rhythm in their bodies, and they hold the possibility of the miracle of life within.
It is time to awaken feminine intelligence - within the wider society - which has been repressed and lain dormant, to address the critical issues we face in the world today. It is feminine intelligence that activates our conscience and holds us to be responsible guardians of humanity, all sentient beings and our planet. This is a way of being and acting which will make possible a flourishing future.
We'll be reporting back from the Summit next week: watch this space.