Power #1 of 4

#1 Why do we hate the word anyway?

When I ask women if they are powerful, or if they want to be powerful, they invariably say NO with a gusto that almost makes me laugh. Many women physically recoil at the thought of using the word powerful to describe themselves.

Why is that?

I have two theories.

1.     We automatically assume that POWER means HARM.

But of course, when we stop and think about the word in a more considered way, we can see that power does NOT always mean harm.

The dictionary definition of the word power is “The ability or capacity to do something or act in a particular way, the capacity or ability to direct or influence the behaviour of others or the course of events, or move or travel with great speed or force.”

None of those definitions imply harm – and yet, most women I speak to viscerally and sub-consciously jump straight to sensing harm in the word.

I believe  that this is simply from decades of women (and other disadvantaged groups) being harmed by an imbalance of power in the hands of people who failed to see the harm it was causing, and the subsequent conditioning of people and infrastructure as a result.

2.    The duality of POWER means there must also be POWERLESSNESS.

We live in a world of duality. Which means that power cannot exist in a vacuum. Wherever there is Power, there is Powerlessness.

I believe that it is THIS that most women actually find abhorrent.  i.e. The fact that, power that causes harm, by definition, causes harm to someone or something that is powerless against it.

When most women consider this concept, their empathy becomes almost overwhelming. And, in solidarity with  powerless victims, women build a negative view of the powerful. EVEN if harm hasn’t necessarily taken place.

SUMMARY

For two reasons, women often hate to use the word Powerful to describe themselves.

We don’t want to be associated with a word that we are viscerally conditioned to assume means harm, AND, we don’t want to be associated with causing harm to anyone or thing that is powerless against it.

And so that it what this Blog series is about

- The imbalance of power that causes harm...

- In the hands of people who fail to see (or ignore) the harm it is causing

- The subsequent conditioning of people and infrastructure as a result; and

- What can be done about it?

Read on.

#2 of 3 Emotionally Intelligent Power and Power Maturity

#3 of 3 Can we re-balance the imbalance? If so, how?

I work with women to help them regain their power. Individually and in society.

If you would like to regain yours, email me at marianne@storeyland.co.uk