The Gifts that women bring … wisdom from women of San Francisco

When I was in San Francisco in May, I hosted a women’s gathering and met some wonderful new friends. What an amazing group. Such wisdom shared, everyone felt thoroughly nourished by the end of the evening.  The group included a wide age range and what is so inspiring for us older women (who may be well-versed in gathering as women to talk about our roles) is to welcome an increasing number of younger women in their twenties and early thirties. They are embarking on a journey of questioning their work roles and their potential to make a different contribution to the world.

From our conversation that evening, I’d love to share with you what I saw as the gifts we are increasingly bringing to the world. A separate blog post reveals my insights into how I am witnessing women changing……

The gifts that we bring as women

1. Being an elder, sharing our wisdom: the workplace now has three generations of women for the first time in history. Young women in business today now have women colleagues to turn to as mentors or elders, some of whom have perhaps three or four decades of experience in the workplace to leverage.  When these women started out they were mostly the new trailblazers with few role models to follow. Now these experienced women professionals are making both their maternal insights and grandmother wisdom accessible to other generations for guidance. I’ve heard the famous quote from Madelein Albright mentioned several times recently: “there is a special place in hell for women who do not help other women”.
2. Intuition guides us: and as we increasingly choose to live and work steered by inner wisdom we are making the practice of turning inside and going deep for answers more acceptable for others to try. We are so willing to go there to make important life decisions.
3. The power to live with uncertainty: so much of the world and workplace is driven by the need for certainty which is one of the great masculine powers that we also derive much benefit from. In these times, certainty is gone so now doubt reigns supreme …… we have to learn to live in the “not knowing”.  This is a very difficult skill to master, yet the journey that many women have made has enabled them to learn to be comfortable here and draw strength from this new way of being. In the the uncertainty there is much possibility and creativity.
4. Taking on the great questions: living life as an enquiry requires courage and clarity. So many of us seem to be searching for what we are here to do. We seem to be keenly aware of both our sense of service to the world, using everything that we have for the greatest good whilst at the same time expressing ourselves in joy.  Crafting great questions is key to was moving forward. We know that the answers are continually emerging whilst we move forward in this state of enquiry.
5. Let go of struggle: that was something we took for granted … no longer, giving permission to ourselves to embrace grace we are more effective and that is empowering others too.
6. The gifts from our own healing journeys: these are providing so much for us, changing the way we do business. Insights, learning and practices from healing are crossing over into business and that is enriching everyone we touch.
7. Noticing the difference of the feminine way: the more we are willing to explore our difference, we can see how working just from our masculine dynamic is only part of what we are capable of.