KoinoniarchyA word to describe a governing system in which women share as equal partners with men in deciding humanity’s destiny – a necessary condition for creating and maintaining a future without war. It comes from the Greek word koinonia, which means to share. It's not patriarchy, nor is it matriarchy...it is sharing in governing our public lives.
This page is about women and their relationship to our lives and ultimately to human destiny, one of my major interests. The page “Sexual Dimorphism” on this website is a good place to begin. It lays the foundation for the ideas to be presented here.
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Women Hold Up Half The Sky
- Chinese Proverb
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"Most Americans now believe women to be just as smart and capable as men -- if not more so, study finds." This was the title of a 20 July 2019 article in the Los Angeles Times. It reported on a study by psychologist Alice Eagely and her colleagues (Eagely et al., 2019). The bottom line conclusion of the study was that over time, from 1946 to 2018, the roles of women in America had changed as they entered the workforce in particular, and as they gained in levels of education. And as a result, the perception of what women were able to do and their approaches to doing it changed. Hence, the stereotypes about the two sexes changed, which the study documented.
At the end of the Time's article, however, there was this caveat: "Some psychologists are still debting whether gender stereotypes that paint women as more nurturing and men as more assertive are innate or learned." My work, which rests on biological and anthropological perspectives, explains why there really are some basic, innate male/female differences that do not rely on learning, and how those differences affect great swaths of our social lives. We are a sexually dimorphic species behaviorally, as I explore in some detail in my book War and Sex and Human Destiny, a full copy of the text of which is available on this website.
In War and Sex and Human Destiny (Hand 2018, p. 45) important human male/female differences were summarized this way: “Some evolved behavioral sexual differences between men and women, in most stripped-down essence, reflect natural selection resulting in men keenly interested in securing social dominance and/or maintaining their social status, and selection resulting in women keenly interested in securing and maintaining socially stable and nurturing communities.”
These differences—cases of behavioral sexual dimorphism—are generalities, to be applied to men in general and women in general, not to individuals; individual humans are a complex mix of hundreds of personality traits. But these general differences are very real. They explain why most cultures recognize a yin and yang, a sun and moon, a “vive la difference.” They have profound impact on broad patterns of our social lives, many of which we don’t consciously recognize.
One of my four major interests is women because I see the empowerment of women globally, so that they are full, respected partners with men in governing our public lives, as the great hope for humanity to actually establish and maintain a warless future. But empowered women have much more that is positive beyond that to contribute. For some examples of those many plusses I point you to my essay, taken from A Future Without War, "Women: The pivotal catalyst for long term change and social stability."
At the end of the Time's article, however, there was this caveat: "Some psychologists are still debting whether gender stereotypes that paint women as more nurturing and men as more assertive are innate or learned." My work, which rests on biological and anthropological perspectives, explains why there really are some basic, innate male/female differences that do not rely on learning, and how those differences affect great swaths of our social lives. We are a sexually dimorphic species behaviorally, as I explore in some detail in my book War and Sex and Human Destiny, a full copy of the text of which is available on this website.
In War and Sex and Human Destiny (Hand 2018, p. 45) important human male/female differences were summarized this way: “Some evolved behavioral sexual differences between men and women, in most stripped-down essence, reflect natural selection resulting in men keenly interested in securing social dominance and/or maintaining their social status, and selection resulting in women keenly interested in securing and maintaining socially stable and nurturing communities.”
These differences—cases of behavioral sexual dimorphism—are generalities, to be applied to men in general and women in general, not to individuals; individual humans are a complex mix of hundreds of personality traits. But these general differences are very real. They explain why most cultures recognize a yin and yang, a sun and moon, a “vive la difference.” They have profound impact on broad patterns of our social lives, many of which we don’t consciously recognize.
One of my four major interests is women because I see the empowerment of women globally, so that they are full, respected partners with men in governing our public lives, as the great hope for humanity to actually establish and maintain a warless future. But empowered women have much more that is positive beyond that to contribute. For some examples of those many plusses I point you to my essay, taken from A Future Without War, "Women: The pivotal catalyst for long term change and social stability."
Eagely, Alice, Christa Nater, Michéle Kaufman, Sabine Sczesny, & David Miller. "Gender Stereotypes Have Changed: A
Cross-Temporal Meta-Analysis of U.S. Public Opinion Polls From 1946 to 2018.” American Psychologist, published
online July 18, 2019.
Hand, Judith. 2018. War and Sex and Human Destiny. San Diego, CA: Questpath Publishing
Hand Judith. 2019. A Future Without War. The Strategy of a Warfare Transition, 2nd Ed. San Diego, CA: Questpath
Publishing.
Cross-Temporal Meta-Analysis of U.S. Public Opinion Polls From 1946 to 2018.” American Psychologist, published
online July 18, 2019.
Hand, Judith. 2018. War and Sex and Human Destiny. San Diego, CA: Questpath Publishing
Hand Judith. 2019. A Future Without War. The Strategy of a Warfare Transition, 2nd Ed. San Diego, CA: Questpath
Publishing.
So it will come to pass that when women participate fully and equally in the affairs of the world, when they enter confidently and capably the great arena of law and politics, war will cease; for women will be the obstacle and hindrance to it.
'Abdu' l-Bahá, son of the Founder of Baha'i
The Promulgation of Universal Peace, 2nd Ed., 135.
Astronomy image credit: NASA: Views of Earth at Night.