If you’re like me, you’ve watched the rapid unraveling of American society over the past six years with a heady, all-consuming cocktail of embarrassment, shame, anger, and fear (and sometimes wine). It’s rattling how much has changed so quickly; QAnon didn’t exist a few years ago, but now it has your grandfather’s brain and there’s a cult in Dallas waiting for the promised return of—checks notes—John F. Kennedy, Jr; there is an incredibly good chance that Roe v. Wade is on the verge of being overturned, putting reproductive autonomy on the chopping block for millions of American women; there’s a global pandemic that has taken upwards of two million American lives and cost American women almost a million and a half jobs, and most of the ones we’ve recovered have been in low-paying service roles; Nazis are back. My head’s spinning just thinking about it.
But I want you to step back and steady yourself. There is opportunity in the air, catching on the wind like fire and cinnamon, and you—yes, you, my darlings—are the fulcrum that can move the future.
This is on my mind for many reasons. I’m bringing it here for your consideration today because I recently read an article in Foreign Affairs called “Revenge of the Patriarchs” all about how the active participation of women in anti-authoritarian movements makes those movements both more likely to succeed and more likely to produce lasting democratic institutions. I highly recommend you read it. Written by Harvard professors Erica Chenoweth and Zoe Marks, it directly tracks the relationship between authoritarianism and anti-woman politics, and how control of women is held up as the defining characteristic of masculinity while womanhood becomes defined solely around reproduction and childcare in authoritarian regimes. If that sounds distressingly like modern conservatism, don’t worry; it is only a sign that you are still sane.
But there’s immense cause for hope in that same article, because it makes blindingly clear that we are that hope.
This is a case that’s been made for ages in the business world, and there’s a degree to which I’m a little startled to see naked capitalism and left-wing resistance movements on the same page. But it’s true; companies where women sit in powerful leadership roles—in the C-suite, boardroom, or anywhere with meaningful influence—simply do better. There’s no magic to it; women are half the population, and if your leadership doesn’t have any idea what women want or need or go through, they’re not going to reach them effectively. Women are responsible for the lion’s share of household purchasing decisions, so this is really just good business.
Well, as it turns out, that holds true in democracy movements as well. The participation of women increases the potential membership base, brings in different strengths and skills and opportunities. Marks and Chenoweth talk about women leveraging gender stereotypes to their advantage: a group of nuns who got in between soldiers and protesters, forestalling a massacre, or elder women protesters shaming government police with threats to tell their grandmothers what they’re doing. There’s even a simple tactical advantage in having people who are more likely to know how to cook thanks to centuries of structural misogyny.
Women are the unsung movers and shakers of civilization, and part of the purpose of that erasure from history is to keep us from recognizing that we made history possible. Women launched the bread riots in Paris that brought down Louis XVI. We have skills and perspective and insights that are essential to the building of democratic institutions that are genuinely inclusive of all players. When women take our place as stakeholders in society, we are unstoppable.
Are you really that surprised? Girls were saying “like” every other word decades before everyone else started doing it, and girls made The Beatles The Beatles. I want you to recognize the immense potential you represent, and how important it is for you to stay informed, get active, and get organized. There are voting rights groups all over the country. There are organizations dedicated to helping women get out-of-state abortions. There is so, so much we can do, and if we rise to the challenge, we can prevent a future that sometimes feels inevitable and build a better one. It’s on us. Let’s take on the future, together.
WRITTEN BY
Liz Elting