Ladies, Wake Up!

It is about time we think further to make sure our daughters have a better life than we do.

Ok, in the western world, women's situation is not that bad: they can vote. They can study, work, aim for the top positions politically and in business organizations. The reality though is in the numbers.

Sheryl Sandberg talks much better than me about these numbers and I really invite you to view the video that you can watch on my blog.

The reality is also that working women with children are not only consumed with guilt, but they also feel a pressure that men don't feel. The pressure I am talking about is the one linked to physical appearance and ability to seduce and convince.

It is hard to change patterns that have been going on for centuries. The lack of self-confidence in most women stems from the fact that, for a very long time, women have seen themselves through the men's eyes.

I was looking at the TV show Bewitched with my daughter the other day. And suddenly I understood why unconsciously I had banned all pink and girlies stuff for my daughter, who, as a result, has never played dolls, princess or anything like that. I guess I had the intimate conviction that this was a fraud.

I find it difficult shopping for gifts for girls because I do not want to feed into this debilitating, servile drive to confine women in an obedient domestic role.

If we want the male female interaction to change, it has to start in education. It has to start in our homes. Who would offer a doll or an ironing board to a boy? Who would offer cars, power symbols to a girl?

My little boy who is five loved to dress up a baby doll neglected by my daughter, but very soon peer pressure taught him that it is not cool to do so for a boy: it is a girl thing!

Women Are Amazing!

Some men may feel threatened by the increasing space taken by women in the business and political world. They should not and let me tell you why.

Most problems we currently face as modern nations are linked to the fact that we have lost our connection with rhythms and cycles. It is not that these rhythms and cycles have disappeared; in fact they are the only steady and predictable things in our world today.

What went wrong is that we have been ignoring them. So instead of working with them, they are imposed on us and we are not prepared. Working with them would mean accepting and respecting these cycles, preparing for the downside when we are in the upside.

Women have an extraordinary ability to stay in tune with the concept of cycle. The very first one is of course the body monthly adjustment to procreate or not, that they feel each month.

As annoying as periods may be, they act as a reminder that we belong to something much bigger than us, over which we have no control. The medical world has tried to suppress that monthly reminder by providing a pill that would stop all periods for six months. But besides the physical side effects of taking such a pill, the very role of guardian and base of all things that women should have is affected.

The world in which we live in has lost all respect for seasons, for cycles of the human kind. As a result, kids have become mini adults, weekly breaks from all activity to reconnect with oneself and the divine are not respected either. Divine here should not be taken in a religious way. Divine represents what is beyond us, what is bigger than us, so it could easily represent your religious belief of a super power, and it should also speak to non believers. What is beyond us is a fact, not a belief. Moon cycle, earth rotation, blood renewal cycle, these are facts.