One Plus One Does Not Equal Two

Critical thinking begins with a concept. There is nothing that requires that the basic premise be accurate. Critical thinking is simply a model in which a concept, any concept, can be taken to its logical conclusion. Therefore, if the concept is incorrect or jaded, the conclusion will be incorrect or jaded. 

For example, many have observed that when some women, who we assume hold a female value system of wisdom, relationship building, and good for all of life, gets into corporate or political positions of leadership, she acts like the males supporting profit over people and we wonder why. Women who have power to set policy will make decisions and bring better good for all is our concept. Right. One plus one equals two of course. And so when that does not happen, we wonder is something amiss with this woman?

What is not factored into this idea of women in leadership is thatwe exist in a context created by systems built from agendas. A system that has been weighted over generations and generations of  “male” principles, and I use that term lightly, is a system rigid in profit, win-lose, you are with us or are the enemy, domination, obedience to authority, and the diminishing of women.

Traditionally, the values of women have been seen as: transparency, actions that prioritize relationships, enhancement of all in the web of life, and encouraging collaboration. These are a very different agenda, system and would result in a vastly different situations. 

When a woman goes into the system of control with the expectation that her presence will cause a change, finds that one plus one does not equal two. It equals one. The entrenched system of domination comes out on top as the ”one”.

A discussion table where the others view women as a “token” will diminish, devalue, ignore and soon her option is to get on board the old boy network or be locked out. Human beings are smart. They have learned to survive.Any group that has been discriminated against has learned to side with the controlling group, defend their actions, mimic their ideas and deny their discrimination. 

Women, often denying the fact, have lived generations in a system that diminishes them. Women are a group of ‘isms” without knowing it.

It had been thought that 33% females in leadership positions could bring new ideas for discussion and even make changes in policy. Recent studies suggest that any less than 67% females at most leadership tables will be discounted, ignored, held in contempt or treated with condensation. And if women don’t recognize that they are victims of a form of ism we will call womanism, they stay small wondering what is wrong with them when one plus one doesn’t add up to two.

As a woman wakes up, see a new vision, the clarity that she will need lots of others holding her hands, having her back as we transition out of our glorified enslavement... white woman "privilege" that has been our entrapment. Women holding hands with on another puts them on the freedom train to the new culture where one plus one will equal two. A culture that values and includes its women, that is the two we all want. 

“ I freed thousands of slaves and could have feed thousands more, if they had known they were slaves.”

Harriet Tubman

Women Standing Together