Written by: Noomi Melchior Natan
You probably know the statistics: Fewer women in leadership positions - the higher up the hierarchy the less women you’ll see, female entrepreneurs getting smaller loans with higher interest rates than their male counter-parts* and on it goes. The gender gap statistics are endless and we all know many of the reasons.
But have you noticed how much harder it is for a woman to claim her power than for a man?
Here are 3 reasons why:
1. Women were owned by others (not themselves)
For thousands of years (in most cultures), women have been presented as a gift. They were owned by their father and “given” away to their husband or husband’s family. In fact, saying a gift is putting rose-tinted glasses on. Often the more appropriate term for how women were treated was as a commodity.
2. Feminine power was seen as inconvenient and threatening
In many patriarchal societies feminine power was deemed seductive, dangerous, and wrong. A clear example is how men took over the job of the midwife and decided it would be a good idea to have a woman lying down and lying still when giving birth. Any sane woman - not socialised by patriarchy - left to her own devices will move around, work with gravity, and make loud noises. She will appear wild and in a trance. Just as she is supposed to. But that didn’t work for the fearful masculine. So women were taught that their instincts to trust their bodies and allow flow to enter them was wrong and dangerous.
3. Feminine power was seen as witch-craft and mysterious
It’s important to note that all genders have access to feminine and masculine power. But if we generalise, masculine power is about conquering. It’s making things happen that are visible and out in the open. It’s penetrating. It’s sowing the seeds and ploughing the land. Feminine power is like the womb or the soil. We cannot see what is happening. We don’t even know if anything is happening… but they have the ability to sprout life. They can create the ultimate magic. But they cannot be controlled and the magic happens hidden in the darkness where it seems for a while like nothing is happening.
So as women we have been taught that if you can’t see it, measure it, track it – the work doesn’t count and you can’t get access to power because it doesn’t access this criteria. So women have had to move into man-mode and although it serves women to access their masculine power, when we neglect our feminine power, we deplete, burn-out, lose our magic, and our results become flat.
So what can you do to claim your power right now?
1. Decide that you want power.
As women, we often have a conflicted relationship with power – because by wanting power we might be labelled as power-driven, power-hungry, power-grabbing. And we don’t want that. But not having power is being power-less and I know you don’t want to be power-less. So first up, acknowledge that you do want to step into your power.
2. Start by embracing your inner power
Mostly women are not interested in the kind of power that is driven by ego and is about using force to get others to do something. That’s why it all starts with inner power. By expanding your inner power field you will light up the world, increase your impact, and make magic happen.
3. Prioritise your inner power.
This means you’ll have to listen within daily. Get quiet and listen to your intuition. And listen above. Connect with a higher power, the divine, universe, God – whatever language you identify with.
4. See yourself as a channel.
If you make it about you stepping into power, you will feel the fear of being judged. But when it’s about you being a channel, the powerful energy is just something that’s coming through you. And it’s your duty not to block whatever wants to move through you to be expressed or created. If you block the flow you will slow down the elevation of consciousness - personal and collective.
5. If you won’t step into power for yourself, do it for the future.
Get comfortable with expanding your inner power for world peace, the planet, for the future of our children. Because the more women step into their power, the better it gets on those three accounts.
6. Appoint yourself as a powerful woman who can make anything happen.
Be more afraid of what will happen if you don’t step into power – and if all the amazing women you know also don’t step into power - if you and they keep playing small. Be more afraid of that than what mistakes you might make or what judgement might come your way. Even if you have no clue what that means to step more fully into your power. Just start telling yourself this new story: I am a powerful woman and I can make anything happen. And watch what will unfold.
* Forbes
Originally published in Issue 3 · May/June 2021 issue of SOULACY.
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