Sep 9, 2006 11:20:00 AM cite

Ashok Gangadean: Well, I appreciate this question especially, because I am working with David Wolfson as the Co-Chair of the World Wisdom Council with Ervin Laszlo and delighted that we could be here in terms of this great event with Dropping Knowledge. I find this question asymptomatic of a malaise in culture to the question of feminine values. What are feminine values? Well, in contrast to the so-called male-centered and I think really the better term is not so much male, but egocentric values which are hierarchical and have a dominance on us versus them type of mentality. What we call feminine values are more integral, holistic, compassionate, care and nurturing, being sensitive to nature and the entire ecology. But those values are the values of the awakened culture that is hopefully coming after millennia of our great teachers and global wisdom through the ages that have been espousing these so-called feminine values, really global human values, I’d rather say, of compassion and care and mutual love and respect and the sacredness of all life. And, so the question of the absence and the exclusion so far of women from positions of power is a symptom of this deeper malaise of a dominance culture based upon the egocentric structures of separation and fragmentation, alienation and ultimately violence. So, if you seek in this symptomatic way, the absence of women in position of power and the rise of the feminine in all aspects of life, in our culture now, is a symptom of this great shift to a higher form of human culture, the sustainable culture on this planet where we can live as one human family sharing our sacred earth, which is the mission of the World Wisdom Council to help facilitate and promote and accelerate this shift to the emergence of feminine durable human values of compassion and care. And, hopefully this is now what’s happening and as the feminine energy rises in our culture, that is the signal of this great shift to a global consciousness and human consciousness and global spirituality as a basis of our new culture.

by Ashok Gangadean

Sep 9, 2006 11:20:00 AM cite

Audrey Kitagawa: Human society cannot be in balance and harmony when there are so few women in positions of power and feminine values are so minimized in all areas. So it is not possible to have balance and harmony under these circumstances. It is very important therefore that for harmony and balance to exist that women must be given an equal place with men, because from the spiritual perspective, everything on the energetic plane must be in balance. The male and female, the positive, the negative, because our universal laws are based on harmony and balance, so whenever you have an imbalance of the male and female energies, especially the oppression of women, you're going to see the manifestation of this imbalance being made manifest on the feminine principle in creation, which is Mother Earth. And I believe that there is a connection between all of the problems that we are seeing being made manifest on earth with this imbalance of the male and female energies, and therefore if we are to experience harmony and balance in the earth realm, within our lives, within our planet, then we must be able to equalize the male and female energies. -- This means that we must increasingly give women the opportunity as well as women themselves taking the opportunity to step into the shoes and up to the plate of leadership roles in all segments of society, political, economic, governmental, and be able to accept their role of equal empowerment.

by Audrey Kitagawa

Sep 9, 2006 11:20:00 AM cite

Benjamin Fahrer: Is human society imbalanced? That’s another question. Is human society in balance? I can’t be in balance when the harmony and in harmony if the feminine is undervalued. If more women were in power and the feminine values were brought to the forefront, we would see more harmony in balance. There are few women in position of power, and feminine values are so minimized. So until these are addressed, we will be imbalance, in imbalance and not in harmony.

by Benjamin Fahrer

Sep 9, 2006 11:20:00 AM cite

Benson Venegas: As a father of two girls I asked myself the same question. And one of the things I learn, is that women, given their psychological makeup, they often struggle in their development process with issues of self-esteem and self-doubt around power. What is very interesting is that men have a tendency to resolve these same issues of self-esteem and self-doubt with competence, violence, and competition. Women on the other hand have resolved their issues of self-doubt according to relational and spiritual models. But when a world is dominated by men, where these esteem issues are resolved through competition and competence, women are left in disadvantage. So what we really need to change is these conditions where people, women, that also, values, spiritual and relational values, can also be part of the process how boys and girls also approach the issues in their lives.

by Benson Venegas

Sep 9, 2006 11:20:00 AM cite

Beverly Schwartz:

by Beverly Schwartz

Sep 9, 2006 11:20:00 AM cite

Bianca Jagger: Answertext will be available soon.

by Bianca Jagger

Sep 9, 2006 11:20:00 AM cite

Bill Joy: I strongly believe that everyone is capable of contributing and that there are as many smart women as there are smart men. In fact there are more smart women and creative women because there are more women. So a society that wants to be competitive in the increasingly competitive world economy is going to have to take advantage of the best and most creative minds and this will include inherently all the women. So what do we have to do? We have to make sure everybody gets an education, men and women. And we should make sure that as women come into the work force that we try to respect their different ways of thinking and working. It obviously is a male dominated culture in say business today but those companies and societies that educate their women and give them equal opportunity for power will benefit because they’re using all the talent that’s available. So I think that over time this long historic trend of minimizing and not really taking advantage of women will change and I’m very hopeful about that.

by Bill Joy

Sep 9, 2006 11:20:00 AM cite

Bora Cosic: I don’t believe that society balance dependence only on women occupying general positions. Much more it depends on the behavior of intelligent people on those positions, the more intelligent people the smaller part of idiots. The question is, are there enough intelligent people for the mass of jobs with high responsibilities? Again I’m trying to avoid ghettoisation of feminine species, and counting how much women posses which position, which is similar to counting of black-, yellow-, red-, or white- skin people in some position. For me it’s much more important that those people are intelligent, and that there are as much as possible of them.

by Bora Cosic

Sep 9, 2006 11:20:00 AM cite

Brian J. Weller:

by Brian J. Weller

Sep 9, 2006 11:20:00 AM cite

Catherine David: I believe that it is a good question, a clear question. A fair appreciation in terms of representativeness, it is true that the number of women, [in charge], is quite insufficient. It seems to me that women have different stories in general, different ways to see and possibly different ways to handle. On the other hand, I would have more distance and problems with the question of feminine values which I don't know what exactly they are, which don't always seem very discriminating to me [to be making a big problem] of the weak representation, the weak exploitation of talents, innovations, of women and more problems with the history of feminine value that seems to be another matter as far as I am concerned and a little dangerous ground that we are facing.

by Catherine David

Sep 9, 2006 11:20:00 AM cite

China Keitetsi: I think men should encourage and help, make sure that women get to talk power because women will not make corruption. Women will more care for development and fairness and truth. And women will make less war because women are only interested for peace environment and peace for world and think more very closely to their children. And that I'm sure that no women want to leave a terrible world to their children.

by China Keitetsi

Sep 9, 2006 11:20:00 AM cite

Constantin von Barloewen: The difficulty to integrate women into the economic process in the western states has very slowly showed up over centuries. The women ratio in the universities, in schools, during economical processes rose only very much hesitating. Some goals were reached but there are still more. One may not forget that in states of Africa, Asia and Latin America the woman is still located in the family tradition, i.e. is merged old traditions which are decades old, these are often very undemocratic and it is not easy to find a balance here between tradition and modern trend. Women from a family tradition are pulled out and integrated in economical processes are not so many as it would be reasonable economicalally and also moral political. The World Bank provided that those companies are most successful, in the states, the periphery, where the women are integrated responsibly into the professional sector. One can only wish that it is more and more strongly advanced, but it is not easy, I think of India, of the old traditions, for instance the marriage ceremony, the burning of widows. There are many examples of discrimination of women. Finding here a leaving of tradition to modern trend, but it would be desirable.

by Constantin von Barloewen

Sep 9, 2006 11:20:00 AM cite

Cornel West: Well, the issue of the long long history of the oppression of women in which sisters of all colors have been confined to activities of caring and nurturing optative children and providing for men, as men move out into the workplace. The treacherous dog-eat-dog social Darwinian workplace has created tremendous imbalance; and the answer, of course, is not simply to send women out into that same social Darwinian space that just reinforces the same kind of hierarchy between a public life, survival of the fittest and slickest in a private life of women subordination or redefining of care and nurturing to women professionals as in fact highly affluent women move into the workplace. But the question is how does the largest society become more egalitarian and caring; and there is no doubt that when we talk about public caring and public nurturing, the link, the common interest that women voices, feminist voices become indispensable and that patriarchal voices have so much to learn just as they must be rendered accountable to the ideals of caring and nurturing historically associated with women within patriarchal spaces within domestics spheres. But the balance and harmony that we are calling for must have everything to do with justice, with reciprocity and with mutuality, that we must be highly suspicious of ideals of balance and harmony that have to do with order as opposed to justice. So, when we are talking about women’s voices, we are talking about few women in power. It really is very much an issue of justice.

by Cornel West

Sep 9, 2006 11:20:00 AM cite

Dedi Baron: Answertext will be available soon.

by Dedi Baron

Sep 9, 2006 11:20:00 AM cite

Donato Bayu Bay Bumacas: Yes, I think there is really a need for more efforts to maintain balance especially in organizational structure or positions where women are really marginalized and still even if women let's say in an organization -- in a position in the government even if you say women let's take 1:1 ratio of women, women are still in terms of power are marginalized because they are being put in a lower position than being put in a higher position. However, in this continuous changing order, I see also women who are now coming out and becoming the presidents, becoming active in high positions in the organizations, but this -- I would like to share one thing. To attain 1:1 ratio does not mean there is a balance. There is also -- it really depends on who is talking about balance because in our committee -- in our indigenous communities women have their own place, men have their own place which you may not see 1:1 ratio, but still we have balance in our society. So, therefore, the 1:1 ratio is not actually the question of balance. Sometimes, it’s in the culture; sometimes it’s in the state of mind. But I agree really especially in the modern world that women are really marginalized. Still our society are being controlled by men and only few women are in a position. So, there has -- there is really a need to exert more effort to really empower women to be -- and place them in a position where it’s not only having a 1:1 ratio but having women equally in a position where they can also decide. So…

by Donato Bayu Bay Bumacas

Sep 9, 2006 11:20:00 AM cite

Dritëro Kasapi: Hi, David. Well, you just answered I think. I think it is not imbalance. I’m very curious about and I’m actually sure of what are the qualities, our life would have, and our societies would have with having a gender balance in all levels of life. What are the theories about that, but certainly it’s not imbalance. I don’t want to romanticize in saying that, well, if there was more gender balance, there will be no wars because men are the warlords and the women are the peacemakers. I don’t believe in that kind of simplification, but there are, I think, there are more complicated dynamics that might happen in our societies, which we are not aware of, and I‘m also very, when it comes to this, I am more interested in the micro loan system in Bangladesh, which is targeting only women and how they developed this, their life and how they actually are taking care of that loan and making something out of those loans and the 99% paying back the loans, which was completely opposite of the men, and I think that kind of responsibility, that kind of driving force as far what women bring in that society certainly affects and changes the position of the woman by improving it of course and showing the power it has in developing not only their personal life and family life, but also the whole society by themselves creating possibilities or having more self-sustainable living and so how many other aspects of--[AUDIO ENDS]

by Dritëro Kasapi

Sep 9, 2006 11:20:00 AM cite

Eliane Potiguara: The word of the indigenious woman is sacred like earth. And if the word of the woman is sacred then it must be heard. The earth is the woman, the earth, the planet is our space. The earth is sacred as well as nature but nature isn't respected. There is no balance. We talk so much about the balance between nature and society, at the United Nations conference in 1992 one spoke about human relations. Today we have consciousness of preserving the environment but I don't see preservation of man and woman. I recognize that the preservation of man is way behind and that of woman even more behind. Women hold a very, very, very low position within society. They stand below the first step degree of society since they are mothers and give birth. I don't know why men don't respect women even if they give birth. Is it possible that men in a sexual relationship when a man possess a woman that he still lives the concept of domination since he has the big phallus and he is the forceful one. In my opinion, the sexual act which is sublime and full of love should be the same for both. In the own sexual relationship the man doesn't treat the woman equally, he dominates her. He still has a feeling of savagery who just takes love instead of sharing it.For the majority of men the sexual relationship is a savage act towards the women. For the majority of women when they make love they do it out of the feeling of love whereas men don't do it that way. This is the root of the differences. On top of that the man oppresses the woman and therefore women have always been in a worse situatuon, always devaluated concerning job matters.

by Eliane Potiguara

Sep 9, 2006 11:20:00 AM cite

Eliot Weinberger: It can’t.

by Eliot Weinberger

Sep 9, 2006 11:20:00 AM cite

Elisabet Sahtouris: Thanks David for the question. And it's a fun one to answer as a woman. In a way you have included the answer in your question by saying that feminine values have been so minimized. I often hear men say: “Oh! You women do the most important work on the planet.” But, if you ask a man whether he would trade places with the women raising children at home, very few will do so. There are some stay-at-home dads now, but they are pretty uncommon. And, what that says to me is that it's a bit empty worded when people say women do the most valuable work, because even if it's true they are not valuing it the way they value men’s work. So, if women are not paid equal wages for raising families with men who do the work in a world of employment, then the society as a whole is not putting equal value on women’s work and never will. Even women in the culture are taught not to value themselves the way men are valued. And so it is more difficult to get women to have equal numbers of decision-making roles even in a democracy where voting happens and women can run for office. So until we see equal numbers of men and women in decision-making roles in the world, we are not going to find out how women really would make those decisions when they don’t feel pressure to behave like men. As long as there is a small minority of women in leadership positions there is a certain pressure on them to talk like men, to behave like men, and so we don’t get the full value of what women have to offer. Men and women were created equal, men and women were created to love each other, to work together, we need each other; we have to refuse the ridiculous separation that has been caused by an economy of private property that devalued women, and get back to where we can function as equal partners. Many indigenous societies did it, there are role models, and we in the developed work can do it too. I hope it will be real soon.

by Elisabet Sahtouris