Life isn’t like it was in Jane Austen’s day. Women have gained a tremendous amount of freedom, and rightly so. But have we gone too far in our quest for equality?
In my last post, I stated that women have been running the show for a long time now. However, we also need to talk about the huge price we pay in doing so.
It’s not just that we miss being protected, guided, and held by our man. It’s also that, when women wear the pants, we lose something essential of who we are created to be. At all levels, intellectual, emotional, relational, physical, etc. In a word, I believe we force ourselves to run in survival mode, and never have the opportunity to thrive!
God designed women to be adaptable, which is a good thing. We have what it takes to rally when needed, but we can only do it on the short term. As a way of life, it can destroy us.
Last spring I heard a female speaker (layperson) say that men are better equipped to lead because of their naturally higher testosterone levels. Something like 30 times as much? So – according to her – when women need to “step it up,” they must rely on adrenaline, which is only a short-term solution – for any human being. If we rely on it long term, we begin to destroy our bodies.
That’s not to say that men don’t run on adrenaline far too often as well, but that it’s not their first resource in the drive to survive.
If not psychosocially/emotionally emasculated – which may actually reduce testosterone levels in males – men have what it takes to go farther and faster than a woman does before their bodies begin to overuse their sympathetic nervous system for day-to-day survival.
I do know that there’s a body of literature that provides evidence that, in order for women to survive in business, they must take on masculine qualities. They have to learn to walk and talk and act like a man, or they will fail in a man’s world.
I don’t mean to say that women can’t be leaders. But I do believe women need to lead using feminine qualities, and not try to become men. The converse is also true. I believe men need to be tender and sensitive and caring, but with the unique style that men have. We should not try to make men into women.
The Bottom Line: As women, we need to figure out how to thrive, not just survive.
