The gender dilemma

If you’re in Australia, and more so in Canberra, it’s been hard to miss the headlines today exposing the poor workplace culture found in Parliament House. The lack of accountability, the power imbalance, and the work-hard-play-hard culture have been called out, with one in three employees claiming they have been subject to some form of discrimination or workplace bullying.

These are big, ugly and scary numbers.

Numbers that MUST precede significant change.

Change, especially that of organisational culture, however, can be slow. It requires a level of courage and bravery that requires those involved to go against the grain. To stand up and risk being the only one willing to do so. To give up personal advantage for the benefit of the group. To commit to a zero tolerance of borderline behaviour. To be in it for the long haul.

After all, organisational culture is like a strong current. It’s REALLY hard to swim against. Organisational theory tells us organisational culture will do one of three things to us.

1. You’ll be a great fit and align easily with the cultural norms.
2. You’ll make personal changes and adapt to it to fit in and be accepted.
3. You’ll be rejected by it, and either leave or be forced to leave.

You see, the cultural norms that exist in organisations are steeped in tradition and history. They are the “things” that happen between the spaces that are taken up with values, polices and procedures. It’s the “way we do things around here”. They are the unwritten, unspoken rules.

But cultural norms, and organisational culture as a subset of this, are more than this. In our traditional institutions, in particular, they are the pervasive beliefs that our society has been built on. These include those who see women as “lesser than”.

When we take a journey through the history books, we can see how this belief has seeped into every part of our lives.

• The earliest legal codes had women as the possession of men, firstly their fathers and then their husbands.
• In science, women were thought to be a biological error (ie, not a fully formed man!).
• In Christianity, we see how Eve was seen as weak and unable to contain her selfish desires by eating the apple, and therefore, the cause of the exile from the Garden of Eden, condemning the human race to a life of suffering.

And so, the stories, the myths and legends continue throughout the ages about the weak constitution of women and, as a consequence, the feminine.

I believe the path to equality lies in the return to the feminine. The restoration of balance. Male AND female. Masculine AND feminine. Yin AND yang.

It’s time for women to return to THEIR wisdom. The wisdom that naturally resides in their bodies. Bodies that are deeply connected to the ebbs and flows of the natural world. The wisdom of the feminine has survived persecution and suppression through the ages, but despite this still being passed on and accessible through the generations. Accessible to YOU.

To be seen, counted and survive, women have needed to adopt more masculine energy. This has led us to being exhausted, feeling overwhelmed and not aligned to who we really are. It leaves us in funk.