Stella Says…The World Needs Women Leaders More Than Ever

by Stella Ramsaroop

(Originally published in Guyana's Kaieteur News on 5 March 2006)

I have always found it to be intriguing that males and females seem to balance each other out in life. Like a ying to a yang, the two genders have a marvellous way of stabilising each other – when the opportunity is there for both genders to interact on an equal basis.

I would like to point out some interesting facts from recent current events. There have recently been protests over some cartoons first published in Denmark depicting The Prophet of Islam in various unflattering ways. Some of these protests were civil and respectable, which allowed to world to understand why certain Muslims were so upset about the cartoons.

However, some of these protests were violent and destructive, which only seemed to affirm the initial point the Denmark publication was attempting to make in the first place. As I watched these violent protests unfold, I noticed something interesting – amidst all of the pandemonium there was not one woman to be found. However, it seemed that where the protests were more civil, there were female protestors right next to their male counterparts.

Let’s bring this closer to home. Did anyone else notice there was never a mention of any women to be found in the small army of terrorists that killed at least eight people a week ago today?

That is not to say that women are not capable of being violent or killing others. I am well acquainted with at least one woman in my life that could be violent. My point is this, when a woman is involved in the leadership of a group, there is an often time far less violence. There seems to be a feminine calming effect that takes place when women are included in every portion of society and rational thinking rules over chaos and mayhem.

I truly believe it is nature’s way of balancing the world. There are times when masculine aggressiveness can be a good thing, but for the most part it is a trait that should be bridled for the sake of society. I believe that when the leadership of a group is a healthy balance of feminine and masculine leadership, it allows the human race to function at optimal performance.

What is wrong with the world today? In my opinion, it is the lack of balanced leadership throughout human history that has produced this world. Little boys grow up without fathers and then turn around and do the same thing to their own sons. The lack of masculine leadership in the home is one of the primary reasons society produces men capable of the type of violence we saw in Agricola.

There is still a severe a lack of feminine leadership in the world at large and a severe lack of masculine leadership in the home. When these two aspects are balanced out, that is when this world will become a bit more tolerable.

March 8 is International Women’s Day and in the U.S. this is Women’s History Month. I believe it is important for women to understand why there needs to even be a month to recognise women. Remember ladies that it was only a couple decades ago that women were even allowed equal access to education in many parts of the world. My great-grandmother never had the right to vote because she was a woman.

I have been fishing around for some history on great women of Guyana. I have been frustrated with this effort because his-story does not say much about her-story. The Guyana history books I own say nothing whatsoever about the women of Guyana and I suppose much of what has been written on this subject is not on the Internet yet. I did find a few decent sites, but nothing substantial.

I am very interested in reading more about the women of Guyana though and would appreciate it if anyone has information they would be nice enough to pass on to me via my email address.

Another reason women are so invisible in history – all history, not just Guyanese history – is because they were usually invisible in society. While they tended to the children, cleaned the house and pampered their waiting husbands, the men are the ones who made the notable speeches, decided when to go to war and wrote the legislation – including the laws that made sure women stayed in the house with the kids.

Think about any type of world history – religious, political, economic, etc. Men have dominated the history for all of these important aspects of life. There may be a woman sprinkled in here and there for good measure, but by and large the men are the ones we learn about in school and church.

In fact, it is this very reason that I am so evasive towards any religion. When someone can present me a religion that accepts women as equals, that is when I will once again consider religion to be something besides detrimental to the human race. At this point, all I see is a very long history of men using God to subjugate women.

Not to mention that religion also has a very violent past for mankind. In fact, that violence is still here today. One man says God told him to kill thousands by flying airplanes into buildings because the West was his enemy and another man says God told him to pre-emptively invade a country because they had weapons of mass destruction. Both of these men were wrong and neither one heard from God.

Throughout history, millions of people have been killed in the name of God by men who thought they were better than someone else because of their religion and because God supposedly spoke to them. If hearing from God makes one person better than another, then women should be on the highest throne because I believe if there is a God, he/she speaks to women far more than men because women take the time to listen.

The world needs women leaders more than ever to balance out this madness that has plagued the human race for thousands of years. Gender balanced leadership is this world’s only hope for peace. Let’s hope we find peace soon.

Email: Stellasays[at]gmail.com