What is an underlying question that gives form
to your work or interest in this field?
My adult life has been a quest to identify the essential
feminine Kore and to apply it in ways that enable women to access their
authentic female voice and apply it with grounded agency as a complement
to men’s leadership. This is critical work at this time of rapid
change and increasing uncertainty. One half of the population does not
have to do it all alone. The other half does not have the full scope
to do that.
My exploration began in 1982 with the question: “What
do women experience when they go for positions of power, influence and
authority in our society?” I surveyed the only people who overtly
compete for positions of power in our culture, political candidates.
I discovered unique leadership qualities and attributes among those
women who won office.
I was curious to know: “Is the gender role enculturation
for girls and boys that takes place in childhood similar across cultures?”
Affirmative. Which led me to the next question: "How can women
apply their unique strengths to constructive leadership alongside men
in arenas of decision making?"
In fact, as I think on it…..my adult life has
been one question after another.
What is your personal experience of collective
wisdom in groups?
Transcendence occurs on individual and collective levels
when people take the time and have a safe space to share stories, listen
deeply, establish trust, bond and breathe together. Time and again,
when participating in both mixed gender and wholly female groups dedicated
to heightening human consciousness, I have experienced personal and
group transformation and, later, focused activism. This dynamic has
occurred in political campaigns that support a candidate who inspires
others for the greater good of the whole, in consciousness-raising groups
for the social justice movement throughout the 70’s, on the Board
of a grassroots national women’s peace action organization and,
recently, in a gender reconciliation training group. The wisdom process
followed a trajectory that involved first connecting with self, then
other and finally expanding the field exponentially to include universal
consciousness.
In our work with women our greatest challenge is to
gain a woman’s attention in a culture awash with distraction.
We repeatedly observe the healing and balancing effect of our group
work with women.
What is it about the work in this field that excites
you and connects you to your own deepest self?
We help women Re-claim their essential feminine core,
Re-value the culturally debased female and apply their authentic voice
to gain agency in arenas of decision-making in ways that will Re-balance
their lives, their communities, their organizations and the planet.
Please provide a brief storyline or snapshot of
what brought you to this work.
I call myself “the optometrist”. I provide
multiple lenses to assist others to see the same material, event, situation
with new eyes in order to have more options to make better choices.
On the larger screen, I bring the wit and wisdom gained from a journey
that took me from community organizing to corporate board rooms, from
parenting to politics, from Boston to Bangkok all in service to “bringing
the authentic voice of the feminine, not always found in women, to arenas
of decision-making to help rebalance the planet”. I received that
message on a vision quest, 8.8.’88 and have consciously followed
it ever since. I came in with an acute gender lens. In Kindergarten
I noticed the boys were being lined up to exit the building in a fire
drill before the girls, I came in noticing gender issues. When I asked
the Priest why, he said “Because they could be future priests,
my dear child.” It took thirty years for me to realize in that
framework I was “worth less” and another decade for me to
overcome the message.
I have been tracking the major thought forms that aid
in my work on gender appreciation since consciousness-raising in the
late 60’s. From systems thinkers, like D. Bohm and E. Schein,
to feminist theorists like C. Gilligan and G. Lerner, including large
map people like R. Steiner and intentional communities like Findhorn,
Damanhur, Trigonos.
How would you like to be available to others in
this field?
I am willing to connect by internet or telephone and
wiling to attend gatherings of like-minded change agents at times and
places of convenience.
