Our Trails to Empowerment community is built on a foundation of female empowerment and self-worth with strong internal values. Female empowerment doesn’t come at the expense of anybody else, including men. The men and women in our community are treated as equals who can work side by side, learning from each other, building an empowerment culture. The women in our community recognize that they can make a conscious decision to reach their full potential and be part of cultivating an alternative to society’s definition of what a woman is capable of and her value. The women who join our community want to live a life that isn’t based on male validation or societal expectations. They want to harness their internal female potential.
The Female Brain
As identified in Louann Brizendine’s book, The Female Brain, from eight weeks after conception, male and female brains begin to develop differently. While male babies get an increase of testosterone, lose some of the cells in the communication centre and grow more cells in the areas related to sex and aggression, female babies gain larger communication centres, allowing for better empathy, social cognition and verbal communication. In addition, women have the distinct ability to carry, birth and feed babies, allowing our species to continue. These abilities have historically been undervalued or minimized, such as by saying this is “all” that women are capable of.
Although men have a responsibility to learn how to manage their biological drives, women are equally responsible for harnessing their biological advantages to reach their full potential and develop their sense of self-worth. For both men and women, it is all about personal responsibility, not being a victim of society’s perceptions of their gender or their internal biology. An empowerment culture is learning about ourselves, managing our weaknesses and enhancing our strengths to contribute to something greater than self.
Female Empowerment and Authentic Power
In our community power comes from within, this is called authentic power in Spiritual Partnership, by Gary Zukav. We have no hierarchy and live in an egalitarian community, which means trying to wield power over others (external power, as defined by Gary Zukav) serves no purpose.
In our community we have no “men’s” or “women’s” roles. Everyone has the opportunity to get involved in everything – cooking, welding, guiding, cleaning, office, ranch maintenance, management – as much as they take initiative and responsibility to do so. Everyone is an equal, no matter their gender. As such, self-esteem and value comes from within and isn’t dependent on approval from others, the acquisition of a new title such as manager or succeeding where someone else has failed.
In our community, everyone steps up to the role of leader – when they are at the right stage of their human potential journey to do so – and this will happen sooner for those who take more ownership, responsibility and initiative than those who don’t.
Vulnerability in Leadership
In Brené Brown’s book, Daring Greatly, she talks about the importance of vulnerability in leadership. It is easier to be vulnerable (which Brené Brown defines as uncertainty, risk and emotional exposure) in our community as every person knows they will be supported for trying something new, not ridiculed as is often the case in society. In the moment a decision needs to be made, someone will step up and take charge, but ensures it is a collaborative effort to get to the solution.
In much of society, women who take on leadership roles are often marginalized by other women who see them as breaking societal norms, and taking on a role that is only for men. But, in our community, we invest in our personal growth and support each other to do the same, inline with Gary Zukav’s spiritual partner concept. This means that when women and men grow and evolve to take on leadership roles, we support them.
A true community is where every individual success is a shared success. We also aren’t restricted by scarcity, the fear that if one person takes on a leadership role, then other people will never have this opportunity. One person will lead now, but next time it will be someone else who steps up to the plate.
Female Empowerment and Mentoring
We are not only leaders, everyone is also a mentor at one point, and a mentee the next. When one person learns a new skill or progresses to a new level of personal development on their human potential journey, it is their responsibility to share this with the rest of the community.
In this way, everyone benefits from the experience. Those who are mentored learn new skills which help them grow and evolve. The mentor practices their leadership skills and reinforces their own lesson through teaching. In much of society, women are often very reluctant to share their knowledge with other women. This is based on the fear that if they share their knowledge, they will lose their special advantage over other women.
This is the Lead Mare concept of leadership. Find out more about being a Lead Mare in Charlie Botting’s books, Lead Like a Lead Mare and Lessons From a Lead Mare, or on our Lead Mare principles page.
Learn More About Female Empowerment
Want to learn more about female empowerment and how to apply it in your own life? Take a look at the content in our Self Study program where you will see how we are always experiencing a Hero’s Journey, or sign up for Online Training or Immersion Training:
