When women make up 35% plus of the national law-making body the probability of war approaches zero.

In the last half-century, the myths that support the most blatant aspects of gender inequality have been debunked.

But the biases they spawned survive even in countries that pride themselves on being world leaders in gender equality.

A quick look at the statistics tells the story.

According to a United Nations study, when women make up 35% or more of the national law-making body the probability of war approaches zero. Yet world wide, women make up an average of just over 24%.

In the US only 24% of the Senate and 28% of the House of Representatives are women, and that’s an all-time record.

Women comprise 51% of the world population, but only 8% of national leaders. Additionally, in spite of a UN study that women’s participation in the peace process results in more robust and resilient peace, only about 10% of peace negotiators are women.

Without firing a shot or raising a fist, the women of Liberia put an end to a fourteen-year civil war that killed and maimed hundreds of thousands and left millions more homeless or impoverished.

In countries where women have a prominent voice in political leadership and decision-making, violence, war, corruption, poverty, and illiteracy go down. In these societies violence against women and children is non-existent and war is abhorred.

Here women demonstrate a degree of confidence not found in other societies including most of the developed nations.

The story repeats itself when it comes to businesses. For example, in the US women make up only 5% of Fortune 500 CEOs even though companies with women in governance perform better than all male run companies.

And the biases against women seem so natural.

In reality, there is no evidence that pre-agricultural peoples had as yet invented chronic war, wealth, social stratification, or gender. All of that came later with a transformation in human society that almost universally commandeered people’s thinking and forever changed how they lived. It was a time when men became Man and women disappeared.

Human males and human females, while different enough to be both complementary and interesting to each other, are not wired all that differently, certainly not enough to account for the gender-based chasm in social standing, civil rights, and the value of work that we see today.

Millenia ago, super-myths -myths so pervasive that they define a culture – drove a wedge between males and females emphasizing and exaggerating small differences until a new male and new female emerged with men on one side, inordinately aggressive and dominating, and women on the other, submissive, subservient, and passive.

The first step in attaining gender equality is to unmask and dismantle the super-myths that hoisted masculinity to the summit of humanness, while sweeping everything feminine to the margins and to restore feminine values as co-principles with masculine values as the moral guide for humanity.

What we’ll explore together:

• The impact gender super-myths have had on sustainable peace, resource equity, and social justice.
• Ways to transform thinking to promote understanding and communication regarding gender issues.
• How to reestablish feminine values alongside male values to foster sustainable peace, resource equity, and social justice.