Never mind that Hilary Clinton didn’t get elected president of the United States. The trend she is a part of is well underway, and I’m not talking about feminism.

Just because no one I know got raptured last weekend doesn’t mean the apocalypse isn’t upon us; it just means we get to change the world before everything goes to hell. The world is in a pretty nasty state, based on the daily headlines, and it’s easy to feel powerless to save it. Yet I know so many people determined to do just that, many of them women. What I’d like to see is more people – men and women – stepping into their world-saving powers, more consciously, more assertively and more effectively.

Note to Men: Don’t stop reading now (if you got this far – kudos to you!) The stuff we ladies are naturally good at – and that the world needs – you’re pretty good at too. Mostly you just need to ALLOW yourself to be good at it!

So why is it I think women are the most likely saviors of life-as-we-know-it? Well, for one thing I don’t think it’s just western women alone that can do this, I think the female of the species has a leg up on our internal wiring, and in the West our cultural position helps a bit too. Here are the four reasons I take sides with His Holiness.

Talent – We’re Wired The Right Way

Tomes have and could be written about this, but it’s just true that women’s skills at contextual thinking, relationships, intuition and even productive multitasking are critical to excelling in our modern world. Ladies – value what you have and BE that way. Men – find your skills in these areas and ignore the social programming to downplay them. Here are a few ideas and resources I particularly like to explore this theme, but there are tons more:

• Whole brain thinking will save the world using the gifts of BOTH right and left brain thinking. Think about it, Western Women. You’ve been natured with a strong right brain and nurtured in a left brain culture. You’ve got it all! Guys, if you have a brain in your head, you’ve got this one available to you too. (A Whole New Mind, by Daniel Pink)
• Businesses with women in leadership produce better results. We’re not talking about all-female companies here, guys. Organizations just need balanced leadership. (Women Lead The Way by Linda Tarr-Whelen)
• The Girl Effect. Women are evolutionarily wired to build wealth in the context of community. This is true in every culture, including the most desperate. If a girl can build a business with a cow in the poorest villages in the world, just imagine what we can do where resources are plentiful. And we’re doing it! (Here’s a link to the original Girl Effect video, which I actually prefer.)

Optimism – We’ve Had Nowhere to Go But Up

It’s not that the guys are tired (well, maybe they are – I don’t know). It’s that women are still discovering more bounty and success around every corner. It’s only been a few generations since the suffragettes were beaten, imprisoned and shamed for wanting to vote. Sure we still suffer pay inequality and underrepresentation in the halls of power, but for at least the last ninety seven years each new generation of women believes that more choice and opportunity lies before her. And where there is opportunity, there is energy to pounce on it. Optimism. Energy. Hope. We’re full of it. Guys – catch a whiff and join us.

Self-Mastery – We Appreciate Internal Power

I happen to believe Lao Tzu had it right and that conquering the self is the first step to changing the world. As the developed world leads the rest of the world beyond the lower levels of Maslow’s hierarchy (yes, I’m reflecting optimism here), I note that it is the Western Woman who is leading the self-help movement to conquer the final frontier of internal – personal – wisdom. Does being a self-help guru make you more powerful and more able to change the world? It can if you stand in power to be a cause of change in the world. When you need to physically fight off the hoards, having some muscles around is a good thing. But when the most pressing challenges involve getting a group enrolled in making change happen, personal wisdom and group power skills are a bit more handy. Even western men and women have a lot of work to do to learn to stand in our power and motivate groups to do the same, but all the wisdom and techniques are at our fingertips. We just have to step up to doing it.

Being – We’re Doing It

By every measure, women are the engine of our economy and the source of unlimited potential to change our world for the better. We’re running more and more small businesses. We’re sending our daughters to college in record numbers. We’re doing it. And we’re bringing our guys along with us. More and more of us have stopped bitching about how hard it is or how under-appreciated we are – and we’re just doing it. More of us are standing InPower to simply BE the cause of change. So do it. Be it. Start now.

What do you think? Am I full of feminista BS? Did I piss off half the human race? I certainly didn’t mean to. Just trying to send out a little appreciation for some under-appreciated reality. I have two sons and my husband and I are teaching them world-saving powers. They’re motivated to serve the world and I’m proud of them. If you’re human, you can change the world for the better. Man or woman – it doesn’t really matter. Do it. Report back.