Our World Needs a Mother

I recently attended a lecture by USC Professor of International Relations, Ann Tickner. The lecture included an exericse in which those attending were told to describe male/masculine qualities in juxtoposition to female/feminine qualities. She then asked the audience, who were prodimently women, to state which qualities they saw in themselves or wish to see in themselves. I was disheartened to see the majority of women identifying with the "male qualities" which included but was not limited to income earner, career oriented, controlled, leader, autonomy, reason and power. One female in the audience went so far as to rebuke any female who would ever want to identify with feminine qualities such as passivity, soft spokenness and indecisive. It blew my mind that 1) she chose the qualities of femininity with the most negative connotations and 2) held reverence for male qualities and a glimmer of shame towards female qualities. To address my first conundrum I plea for all to think twice about the judgement of qualities. Aggressiveness is considered comendable in a work environment while passivity is condemened. Maybe passivity is wise while aggressiveness is foolish? Aggressivenss in foriegn policy for instance has left the US a debt and a pariah in the New World Order. Passiviity, the feminine quality may have served us better, and therefore should not be considered negative. And what of autonomy? I would think any man or woman who could think he or she could make it in this world alone or independent has failed to understand how greatness was achieved. No great leader ever achieved success alone, not Gandhi nor Mother Theresa, nor any great president. Many women feel that they must adopt masculine qualities to be successful in our male dominent world of today, but I question the need for leaders seeking more power and money or policy based on toughness and reason. In my opinion, the world is in need of the so-called feminine qualities of empathy and caring. I plea for all women to develop the qualities in them regardless of their gender associations, but I plea more for any man or woman to recognize that maybe our male chavuanistic world is need of a mother of unconditional love and fierce maternal protectiveness.