VII. Our Earthuman Ascent: A Major Evolutionary Transition in Twndividuality

5. Half the UniVerse: A Woman's 2020 Wisdome

Schmitt, David, et al. Why Can’t a Man Be More Like a Woman?: Sex Differences in Big Five Personality Traits Across 55 Cultures. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 94/1, 2008. This research article has gained note because its study of “Neuroticism, Extraversion, Openness to Experience, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness” came up with an unexpected result. In more traditional societies, due to cultural and environmental stress, gender variations actually tend to lessen and level out, while in developed, prosperous cultures women and men are liberated to express their distinctive archetypes. The quote is from a September 9, 2008 New York Times editorial by John Tierney on the project.

When men and women take personality tests, some of the old Mars-Venus stereotypes keep reappearing. On average, women are more cooperative, nurturing, cautious and emotionally responsive. Men tend to be more competitive, assertive, reckless and emotionally flat. Clear differences appear in early childhood and never disappear. (F1)

Schwartz, Shalom and Tammy Rubel-Lifschitz. Cross-National Variation in the Size of Sex Differences in Values: Effects of Gender Equality. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 97/1, 2009. Hebrew University of Jerusalem researchers confirm that improved social conditions actually facilitates and enhances feminine and masculine qualities, as the quote avers, of benevolent tolerance or individual status.

Of particular relevance to the present study, increased gender equality should also permit both sexes to pursue more freely the values they inherently care about more. Drawing on evolutionary and role theories, the authors postulate that women inherently value benevolence and universalism more than men do, where as men inherently value power, achievement, and stimulation more than women do. (171)

Sherr, Lynn and Megan Thompson. Women’s Movement Transforms Post-War Liberia. http://worldfocus.org/blog/2009/04/14/womens-movement-transforms-post-war-liberia/4965. An extraordinary program aired on April 14, 2009 on the PBS World Focus that chronicles how the women of a country so long ravaged by warlords and gangs came together and collectively rose up to demand an end to this male rampage that killed so many children. The newly elected President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf has proceeded to transform Liberia from cycles of violence to an unprecedented prosperity, which brave men’s groups now realize is for everyone’s good. Here is a spectacular exemplary case that needs to be preserved and told that could apply to so many other intractable conflicts such as Afghanistan or Sri Lanka. The most vital line from the program belongs to the new “Gender Minister” Vabah Gayflor about women and men: We are not in competition, we just want to complement one another as future partners.

Shiva, Vandana. Staying Alive. London: Zed Books, 1988. An Indian physicist evokes the natural feminine principle in an effort to save her country and the earth from masculine industrial and military excesses. Shiva’s voluminous writings and tireless advocacy for social environmental justice carry on this imperative cause.

Siapha, Anastasia.. Towards a Feminist Metaethics of AI. arXiv:2311.14700. As the 2023 AI intensity rises, a Centre for IT & IP Law, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium scholar cites a need for vital course correction to an egalitarian, ingrained gender justice going forward.

The proliferation of Artificial Intelligence has sparked many of AI ethics guidelines, boards and codes of conduct. However, as recent problematic incidents about AI demonstrate, this orientation remains inadequate. Before proceeding to evaluate other professions, In regard, I argue for a research agenda for a feminist metaethics of AI. Applying this perspective, I suggest these features (i) the continuity between theory and action; (ii) the real-life effects of AI ethics; (iii) the role and profile of those involved; and (iv) the effects of AI on power relations along with context, emotions and narrative. (Excerpt)

Overall, the way forward for an AI ethics informed by feminism involves paying attention to the complexity of the moral landscape and advocating for an enlargement of what is deemed as the orthodox scope of metaethics. As a welcome corollary, it might have pedagogical value, converting otherwise different critiques into a body of thought accessible to newcomers in the AI ethics field. On a
practical level, it could serve as a useful resource for policymakers, legislators and practitioners working on AI and its governance. (8)

Sigurdardottir, Johanna. Give Woman a Chance, and They Will Change the World. New York Times. September 17, 2018. An Op Ed by the former Prime Minister of Iceland states a most evident truth, which men would prefer not to become widely known. As we are well aware in the USA, the state of affairs and debate is spinning itself beyond fiasco, chaos and any modicum of sane civility. Once again, how can it become more obvious that a reciprocal share and balance is the natural preference.

There is every reason to consider seriously how things might change if women and men manned posts of power in equal numbers throughout the world. After a 35-year career in Icelandic politics, I have concluded that women are generally better than men at ensuring fairness in society. The world would truly be a better place if equal numbers of women and men were at the helm. Women also proved to be wiser than men as the financial crisis unfolded. There were hardly any women among the managers of the Icelandic banks that defaulted in 2008. In fact, it was banks run by women, such as Audur Capital, that provided the best examples of how to weather the financial storm. In contrast, the chief executives of companies that were hardest hit by the crash were predominantly male.

Sjoo, Monica and Barbara Mor. The Great Cosmic Mother: Rediscovering the Religion of the Earth. San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1987. A classic affirmation of the primal amniotic, feminine matrix of worldly gestation. In the later Neolithic age, based on archeological finds, an incarnate, fecund Goddess graced human life via the seasonal cycles of birth and death and birth. But a patriarchal sky god has come to dominate history which drains earth life of numinous enchantment.

Spencer-Wood, S. Strange Attractors. Schiffer, Michael, ed. Social Theory in Archeology. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 2000. The subtitle of the book is: “Feminist Theory, Nonlinear Systems Theory, and Their Implications for Archaeological Theory.” This essay contends that as opposed to the masculine, Newtonian, linear paradigm of dominant control, the new dynamical sciences emphasize interrelations, both/and inclusion and subjectivity, which are then seen as feminine in kind.

Stein, Murray. The Principle of Individuation. Wilmette, IL: Chiron Publications, 2006. A Jungian analyst surveys past understandings of our arduous life course toward wholeness and selfhood. As more than an individual psychology, the same developmental course, Stein states, can be seen to grace the history of tradition and civilization. A deep religious dichotomy can thus be resolved whence extant natural matter is not corrupt versus spirit, men better than women. Rather a spark of divinity resides, proceeds, and abides, a filius philosophorum, in everyone.

As a dynamic force, individuation refers to an innate tendency….for a living being to incarnate itself fully, to become truly itself within the empirical world of time and space, and in the case of humans to become aware of who and what they are. (xii-xiii)

Stikker, Allerd. Closing the Gap: Exploring the History of Gender Relations. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2002. In this unique study, a Dutch environmentalist discerns an inherent, beneficial complementarity between feminine and masculine, which has been undone through millennia of male dominance. Its overdue recognition is vital if a peaceful, viable world is ever to be achieved. These next excerpts are from the book cover:

The development of the patriarchical society, still evident today, has its roots in antiquity. Originally, there was a matrilineal basis to early societies, but as the various ancient civilizations developed around the world, men gained in importance and power. Women were relegated to subordinate positions in the hierarchy.

A male-dominated structure does not offer us the best solution for all the world’s current ills - power sharing between men and women is essential. The natural dualities which have become separated over time, must return to a state of balanced interdependence: female and male, nature and culture, ecology and economy, if we want to preserve a sustainable human society on our planet.

Su, Rong, et al. Men and Things, Women and People. Psychological Bulletin. 135/6, 2009. Billed as a “Meta-Analysis of Sex Differences in Interests,” I am now so glad it has been quantified that boys prefer trucks and girls tend to dolls. And yes these gender traits go on to influence a person’s career path. As a result, it is noted that women are mostly absent from STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) fields. But may one add that another reason might be their particle paradigm whose “dots only” emphasis is male left brain and does not attract or seems foreign to a women’s bicameral penchant for “connections?”

Sullivan, Susan Crawford. Living Faith: Everyday Religion and Mothers in Poverty. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2011. A College of the Holy Cross (Worcester, MA) sociologist documents how vital it is for oppressed and burdened women and mothers to have a modicum of life-sustaining beliefs and abiding hope. The solace of “God must have a plan” must exist, that a deep meaning abides will to ultimately prevail over despair.

Scholars have made urban mothers living in poverty a focus of their research for decades. These women's lives can be difficult as they go about searching for housing and decent jobs and struggling to care for their children, while surviving on welfare or working at low-wage service jobs and sometimes facing physical or mental health problems. But until now little attention has been paid to an important force in these women's lives: religion. Based on in-depth interviews with women and pastors, Susan Crawford Sullivan presents poor mothers' often overlooked views. Recruited from a variety of social service programs, most of the women do not attend religious services, due to logistical challenges or because they feel stigmatized and unwanted at church. Yet, she discovers, religious faith often plays a strong role in their lives as they contend with and try to make sense of the challenges they face. Supportive religious congregations prove important for women who are involved, she finds, but understanding everyday religion entails exploring beyond formal religious organizations. Offering a sophisticated analysis of how faith both motivates and at times constrains poor mothers' actions, "Living Faith" reveals the ways it serves as a lens through which many view and interpret their worlds. (Publisher)

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