Our Turn

I’ve been dreaming about the feminist utopia in Herland. The book describes an isolated society entirely composed of women. The result is an ideal social order free of war, conflict and domination.

But what would society look like in real life if women ruled? Would it be better or worse? I remember back in high school a well-known, all-girls private school realeased a set of promotional posters for a campaign called, “If Girls Ruled”. The gist was, the world would be a better place and that men are the root of all that is bad. The boys schools took this to heart. Well, duh. It was a lengthy debate topic in their classrooms and even teachers were getting heated about it. I want to make clear, the ad never mentioned boys or men, but it implied a lot; about men, about masculinity and about male leaders. This was one of the boldest feminist campaigns I had ever seen. It was unapologetically candid. 

Obviously, we don’t know what the world would look like if women ruled. But we do know that what’s happening now is not working. We have nothing to lose and everything to gain by giving women a shot. While we can’t say for sure whether women would behave any better (women can be just as selfish as men) we do know that women tend to lead differently than men. They’re more likely to be collaborative and encourage dialogue. My personal take is that there would definitely be fewer pissing contests and wars. That’s not to say women don’t have egos, they do, but their sense of self is not tied to dominating others. 

So what do we do? Do we throw out the baby with the bath water? Some would say yes but that doesn't seem fair. What I know is that as a society, we need to return to our roots and embrace our humanity. The leaders for that crusade? Women.