”FLY AS ONE” - A MANUAL FOR EQUAL WORTH

By: Lisbeth Brix B?ggild, Ann-Merete Iversen, Pernille Ingildsen and Tina Monberg

March 8th is the International Women’s Day. It is celebrated all over the world and in some places as a holiday, e.g., in China and Berlin.

The idea for the International Women’s Day was conceived in Denmark in August 2010 and was imagined as a day of ‘fighting back’. Since, it has spread to the rest of the world. It is an important manifestation of the fight for equality between the genders. Today, 112 years later the identification with one gender or another is not meaningful for a lot of people. Especially among the younger generations. Humans, employees and the citizens of 2022 prefer to be seen as a whole person based on their individual traits rather than the proclaimed traits of their gender.

The time has come to create an equal worths day, where healthy feminine and masculine traits are in focus and are celebrated. A day to celebrate the fully integrated human regardless of gender. A day to let go of focus on the binary understanding. A day where we look for ways to promote healthy feminine and masculine traits in all of us, regardless of gender. To celebrate the traits within us and among us in organizations, countries and globally. Let’s find a way forward to a healthy sustainable society by introducing a second movement - from equal rights to equal worth.xpand the International Women’s Day with an Equal Worth’s Day for everybody

?WHAT DOES QUOTA AND EQUAL WORTH HAVE IN COMMON?

Most EU Member States have decided to support a directive on at least 40% representation of each gender in listed companies.

This is an attempt to promote the female gender on boards, and perhaps without it being said out loud – to strengthen the healthy feminine traits of the boards. Both men and women can show healthy feminine traits, but they are more easily strengthened when more women are present. Let's go beyond biological gender and make both men and women responsible for creating the conditions for both healthy feminine and masculine traits.

We argue that we have reached a point where equality through quotas – or safety in numbers – is an insufficient way to measure if we have true equality and diversity in order to create sustainable individual, organizational and societal growth.

Let’s rethink equality to mean equality in worth between feminine and masculine traits. Let’s rethink the gender stereotypes and provide room for leadership that includes feminine traits such as inclusiveness, reflection and conscious decision processes.

We suggest that companies and organizations – whether private or public – decide to actively define and promote both healthy masculine and feminine traits of their board members. And make these values and characteristics public to the public so that the process is transparent to everyone.

Who would not like board members, with healthy feminine qualities such as a holistic approach, attentive listening skills, safety-oriented perspectives, inclusiveness and long-term thinking as well as healthy masculine qualities such as courage, vigor, persistence and determination? We need to move from declarations of intent to the realization of healthy feminine and masculine traits in our organizations. Some may imagine that this already happens in organizations, however this is not how it is experienced by many in the 'middle and bottom of the organization chart'. In contrast to the declarations of intent on equality, unhealthy masculine characteristics such as closedness, dominance and inconsiderateness take up more space than anyone – men and women – wants. We have a collective 'blind spot' for the fact that masculine characteristics have been systemic for many years.

GOING BEYOND UNCONSCIOUS BIAS

We know that both healthy and unhealthy masculine and feminine traits exist in all of us. And when we work consciously with this insight, we can create the healthy society and the healthy organizations we want to live and work in. We have created a dialogue tool, where you can explore healthy and unhealthy masculine and feminine traits without falling into the trap the female/male gender struggle, which is both exhausting and unconstructive. Everyone knows that conflicts are rich with energy, however, to be constructive, conflicts need to be mediated. The conflict between men and women as gender is systemic. It creates a win/lose situation. We want to create an interest-based space for diversity without power struggles or competition between the genders.

The society of today unilaterally celebrates the healthy masculine characteristics in both men and women, but silently accepts unhealthy masculine characteristics especially in men. A woman who in her behavior lives out (too) masculine traits to ensure impact is easily excluded and shamed. Men and women are equally tired of unhealthy masculine traits being given space and unwittingly being tolerated in men.

Conversely, we rarely find healthy feminine qualities being celebrated in our society and organizations. Men and women with healthy feminine qualities are often not recognized for their contributions. At the same time, we see examples of men exhibiting an array of unhealthy masculine characteristics reaching the top of societies and organizations. We seem to be unconsciously positively biased for the masculine.

We imagine a future where we play a different kind of board game; where individuals decide for themselves what to stand for – and how to balance healthy masculine and healthy feminine traits in a way where both are equally valued and equally celebrated. We suggest a FLY AS ONE manual on as the new board game working with both masculine and feminine characteristics.

Let’s show that our raw material is mutual trust and that we want each other. And that it's more important what we can do together than separately. And together, let's take the lead in creating and celebrating an Equal Worth Day that celebrates both the healthy feminine and the healthy masculine and their many different expressions on the way to a balanced development of our society.

HAPPY EQUAL WORTH DAY!