The last post ended with one clear indication: the only antidotes to war and division are beauty and love. In ancient Rome, the goddess of beauty was Venus, who Julius Caesar claimed as his ancestor. Moreover, Venus was seen as the quintessential symbol of femininity.
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As this blog's underlying theme is inclusion, especially women's empowerment, I chose Friday - the day dedicated to Venus - as the day of publication of every post.
On the 8th of March, International Women's Day was celebrated: the day should be a reminder of how femininity should be celebrated, not repressed. Nonetheless, even in 2023 femininity is still regarded as a weakness rather than a strength. Women are traditionally seen as carriers of values such as softness, free expression of feelings, and empathy. Sadly, the same values are regarded as weaknesses rather than strengths in many work environments - especially international security.
As UN Women reports, women's contributions to negotiations and peace processes are meaningful, yet largely undervalued. Often, when referring to international security, the general idea that one has is that is a male-dominated world, and such an idea is not far from reality.
The reasons for this are several, however, I would like to draw attention here to one specific point. In many cases, women have a harder time building a career in tech, security, or finance because they are seen as not suitable for the role. We can make different examples for each of these fields:
- Tech: Being seen as very in touch with their feelings, women are often assumed to have the rationality that it takes to have a ground-breaking scientific idea.
- Security: As society perceives women as very kind, their character feels out of place when it comes to making tough security decisions.
-Finance: The empathy - often carried by women - does not yet find a place nowadays in business.
These examples show a mismatch between femininity and the underlying values of several work environments, where women are still highly lacking. The easy answer that is given to this problem is to increase women in this environment, thinking that more women equal more femininity. This is not the case, as femininity is more about values, than about the carriers of these values. Yes, it is likely that increasing the share of women in security will make this a more female-friendly environment, but there isn't the certainty that there will be a change in values.
Another quick answer to this problem that we hear is that women can change themselves to fit in. The current narrative is about making women as tough as men, as competitive as men, and so on. Nonetheless, this is not a long-term fix either. Women will only be liberated when they will be free to be themselves. When empathy, kindness, and beauty will be appreciated in society as much as toughness and efficiency, that is when women (as well as men) will be truly free.
As J.F. Kennedy once said during his speech in Berlin: freedom is indivisible. When women are not free, men are not free either. As long as feminine qualities in society are underappreciated, there will be no space for equality. Men, like women, will be prisoners of a scheme that puts only competition and results above everything, rather than also focusing on the process that leads to such results and to altruism.
It is not a case that the document that started the feminist movement in the U.S. was called "Declaration of Sentiments": it was a re-elaboration of the Declaration of Independence, which included also women's rights. When in society feelings and beauty will be freely expressed - women will be free. When this will happen in international security as well, there will be less war and less division.
To women and men,
Love,
Elena
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