5. WOMEN IN POWER: What will be?

The liberation of any group invites into its new profile a variety of cure-alls and illusions and many of these have accompanied women’s liberation from their subordination to men. One of the more awesome speculations is, “If women ruled the world there would be no war.”

Of particular interest here – and a major issue, considering we are discussing the continuance of life on the planet – is the late Congresswoman, feminist and lawyer Bella Abzug’s panaceaic:

“Women will change the nature of power rather than power changing the nature of women.”

Is this, or is it not true? Is the jury out? Or is the statement false?

Contradicting that view, Srilatha Batliwala, Indian feminist activist, Harvard research fellow and WEDO Board Chair, writes in Women Transforming Power:

“Feminists interested in gender, power and political transformation the world over have realised the complexity, resilience and insidiousness of the patriarchal model of political power and how cleverly it neutralises those challenging it. We have learnt that power more easily alters us than we can alter it. It appears that our early assumptions have been tested, and found only partly valid.”

(Source: openDemocracy.net, 06 October 2005. WEDO is Women’s Environment & Development Organization.)

Three groups from which to look at this issue present themselves: •women in the traditional power structure; •the movers and shakers who operate independently within it (often in opposition to it); and •women’s power that is needed to save the earth.

Speaking about the feminine principle and sustainable development last spring, I referred to women’s outrage at the hubris of men at the World Economic Forum in Davos (January 2009) planning the future of the planet with absolutely no input from women. Now I learn that there is a “Davos for Women” – the Women’s Forum for the Economy & Society – which has been meeting in Deauville, France, for the last five years. Eight hundred plus high-powered women from around the globe (and a select group of 120 men; note that there were 5 women delegates at the ‘real’ Davos) brainstormed about female leadership in everything from business to peacekeeping.

The jury’s out on this lot, too. One of these so-called elites suggested that “...women around the world should pick a day and stop doing whatever it is they do. Then the men will realize our contribution....” Forty years ago, such an idea would have been amusing in a consciousness-raising group. Now it is simply annoying.

(Source: “At ‘Davos for Women,’ Some View the Downturn as an Opportunity to Rise,” by Katrin Bennhold, NY Times, 19 October 2009.)

There are things that we do know about this sector, relating to who power changes and who changes power. The patriarchal power structure and its economic, political and social institutions all have intact ideologies and cultures which exist to rationalize and perpetuate the inequities upon which their organizational empires are built – and to which all people on earth and Mother Earth herself are subjected.

Within corporations and institutions, all members undergo “comprehensive submission of his individual personality to that of the corporation” and fit into the “collective personality of one’s employer.” These people hold and wield various dimensions of the organization’s power according to their position within the hierarchy. As they exercise their mandates, they do so at the expense of their victims, who are generally large classes of disadvantaged people.

The women’s forum at posh Deauville is a parallel ritual to the men’s at Davos. What they come up with in their attempt to play a major role in the “evolution of the economic mind set” will cohere to the dominant narrative that ensures business as usual – meaning that the “world’s resources are divided in a way that is grossly unequal.” They, like their male counterparts, will continue to perpetuate inequities that abuse those outside the power structure – with the occasional women’s “empowerment” project thrown in as a bone.

Here it is the end of January 2010 and the world’s superclass (“elite business leaders and powerful government officials” they call themselves) is convening again in the little Alpine village in Switzerland. There will be backslapping and self-promoting blather. As for the outcome, what can one expect from the very same people who brought us global economic collapse?

[To be continued....]