The state of the world is fairly dismal when a convicted felon takes over the world’s leading superpower setting out a radical pathway that takes us backwards on climate, diversity, migrant and trans rights. His sidekicks drawn from the tech oligarchy seem to think Mars is a viable option when the rest of our planetary ecosystems collapse. And of course, then there’s the Mark Zuckerberg claim that the world needs more masculine energy.
It’s hard to remain silent. Masculine energy has continued to fuel the Russian invasion of Ukraine and Israel’s destruction of Gaza. It has seen sexual and gender-based violence used as a widespread weapon of war in Sudan and Darfur. It has completely silenced women in Afghanistan and erased them from public life.
In 2024 average global temperatures surpassed 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels, setting us on a pathway for climate destruction. It is easy to ignore the stark climate warnings by plotting a pathway to Mars. It’s ingenuous if you are a billionaire with no moral compass around the plight of the rest of the world’s population who face increasing wildfires, floods, cyclones and drought.
The world does not need more masculine energy.
Masculine energy is failing dismally to deliver for the majority of the world’s population – of all genders. It reeks of patriarchy, colonialism, racism, and division.
Feminist leadership could be the antidote to a world that feels like it is spiralling out of control. It offers a humility to focus us on what we can control. As the inspiring Indian feminist scholar and activist, Srilatha Batliwala challenges us, how do we think we can change the world out there if we can’t change the one within our control.
It’s a feminist rallying cry that urges us not to give up hope but to start with our homes, our workplaces and our communities in working towards a more just, equitable and sustainable world.
At ActionAid, we work to practice this every day with a set of feminist principles that guide how we want to be the change we’d like to see in the world. Our vision of a just world free from poverty, oppression and patriarchy requires transformative feminist leadership – leaders who build power with rather than power over others.
These principles call on us to be self-aware and to practice self-care and care for others, as well as to work towards dismantling unconscious bias, promoting inclusion and zero tolerance of any form of discrimination and abuse of power. They promote power-sharing and the responsible and transparent use of power, along with accountability, respectful feedback and courage.
We have embedded these principles into our staff culture, reflecting regularly on our practice and how we can continue to grow our individual and collective responsibility to drive change. It is a starting point to ensure our daily practice aligns with our principles, our politics and our policies.
Feminist leadership encourages continuous interrogation of the unconscious bias and norms that lie below the surface of a well-meaning organisation. And it pushes to recognise that all injustices are interconnected.
Feminist leadership is not just for women – it is for people who believe in gender equality and ending all forms of discrimination to drive change within the spaces where we live, work and influence.
American activist Anne Lamott once said that “Hope begins in the dark, the stubborn hope that if you just show up and try to do the right thing, the dawn will come. You wait and watch and work; you don’t give up”.
Right now, the world urgently needs that hope and a powerful dose of feminist energy.
The post What does the world need right now? A big dose of feminist energy appeared first on Women's Agenda.
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