Realizing Your Full Potential: Empowering the Feminine within Yourself and Your Organization
Why does gender inequality continue to persist despite countless efforts by the government and organizations?
Why are organizations failing to cultivate healthy working environments despite a glut of leadership books and coaching and consulting efforts?
What is keeping people from realizing their full potential and following their soul’s calling?
One key reason: The feminine is not empowered.
In this context, the feminine is not about gender, but rather is referring to the feminine principle that is present in all people and every culture. The feminine principle embodies creativity, emotions, the somatic (body) and instinctual, and the intuitive. The feminine is flexible and fosters relationships promoting inclusion and is also deeply connected to nature.
The feminine principle is essential for personal growth, organizational success, and community well-being. The way that the feminine has been viewed by Western culture is narrow and disempowered and neglected and the masculine has been prioritized.
Ideally, the feminine principle is in balance with the masculine principle, which includes the rational, structured, goal-oriented, assertive, and expedient. The masculine elements are also critical; however, organizations frequently prioritize them at the expense of the feminine. Not only are feminine elements suppressed in organizational cultures, but people are taught to subdue them within themselves as Western culture favors the masculine.
Why Empower the Feminine?
To Promote Gender Equality
The neglect of the feminine principle in the workplace significantly contributes to gender inequality. Culturally, women are expected to hold feminine attributes, and as the feminine principle is undervalued, so are women. This is one of the reasons that despite all the governmental and organizational policies, gender equality is still a long way away. Until the feminine principle is empowered within individuals and organizational cultures, the gender gap will continue.
To Cultivate a Healthy Work Environment
Elements of the feminine are vital to a healthy working environment where people can achieve their potential. An organization which appreciates the feminine principle fosters inclusion and diversity on a fundamental level, rather than simply to meet quotas. The feminine also appreciates the gifts and talents each person brings and fosters them to achieve their aspirations. By balancing the masculine and feminine elements, an organization creates an environment that allows people to bring their whole selves to work. It also fosters the power of creativity and brings in intuition and flexibility to help organizations sense when they might need to change course.
To Encourage Personal Well-being
People cut off half of themselves and many aspects of a soulful life when they dismiss the feminine principle within themselves. Being connected to creativity, emotions, and intuition is important to mental health, so is caring for the physical self. Feelings of being accepted and in true relationship with ourselves and others are critical to well-being.
To Create Beneficial Products and Services
Organizations usually develop products and services based on anticipated financial success. By considering the feminine principle in their design, organizations may help to foster feminine aspects throughout the wider world such as attending to nature, an ability to genuinely appreciate others, and fostering collaboration. The recent issues with various technological inventions have shown how important it is to consciously consider the impacts of our creations.
How do you Empower the Feminine?
By working on both the inner personal and the outer cultural feminine simultaneously so that one does not undermine the other. If the inner feminine is not addressed, individuals may impede any organizational efforts. If people only focus on their own inner feminine, a hostile environment may thwart any progress.
By uncovering whatever is undermining the feminine within individuals and organizations. Frequently the reasons the feminine is not in power and balanced with the masculine are not consciously known. Unconscious beliefs contributing to inequality need to be brought to light, which is not easy nor a fully rational and logical process.
By engaging with more than rational and logical thinking as the unconscious cannot be accessed through them alone. Other ways of knowing need to be employed to understand what is happening below the surface. Those other sources of wisdom may include such things as working with individual’s dreams and somatic experiences. Organizational barriers to feminine empowerment can be explored by exploring nuances of the organization such as how meetings run, how decisions are made, and the language that is used.
By imagining new ways of being feminine. Western culture has a limited view of how the feminine should be often placing her in service of the masculine. Part of empowering the feminine is remembering ways the feminine has been in power in other times and places. For instance, the goddesses of ancient Greece reflect a more holistic feminine.
By consciously cultivating the feminine. Change requires concerted effort as it can be difficult to transform long-standing beliefs and habits; thus, individual and cultural strategies need to be created.
Talks and Workshops
I have developed a series of talks and courses supporting feminine empowerment within individuals and organizations. They result in a deeper understanding of the issues and specific strategies for change.
Some questions the participants will be able to answer are:
What exactly is the feminine principle? Why is it important?
What does the feminine principle look like when it is empowered?
How does the feminine principle show up in me and in my place of work (e.g., within the company culture and its products and services)?
What is keeping the feminine from being empowered within myself and the organizations?
What is the relationship between the masculine and the feminine within me and the organization? Are they in balance?
What are the benefits of empowering the feminine and balancing it with the masculine for both me and the organization?
How can I empower the feminine within myself?
How can I work with the organization to foster the feminine principle in the culture?