THE WAY OF THE MYSTERIAL WOMAN

The authors of this book are both women who have had successful careers running empowerment trainings for women. In the book's blurb, we read that it: "… is for every woman who feels the call to greatness, authenticity, and meaningful living; women who are finally ready to step into their lives with mind, body, heart, and soul fully engaged and awaken their true potential." To achieve this the authors present instructions representing a structured course which the reader can follow, by themselves, at home. The language of this course is influenced by Jungian alchemy, transformational psychotherapy and Eastern mysticism. The book is aimed at women who are " …characterised by green, socially responsible, and more feminine values… who are seeking to develop more leadership capacity". And the book is dedicated to "women all over the world who are awakening to the Mysterial potential within".

The book delivers its message in a professional and elegant way, using elaborate language, that surely will be appreciated by many readers. Despite this, I found that I had several objections. My main issue is that it speaks only to women. This is true of the general theme and all the exercises are for women. They encourage women to deal with their Yin-Yang polarity issues, mother and father issues, to 'flame' their hero, maiden and crone. All these aspects of the human psyche are described with a feminine focus in the book: I do not regard it as progressive to focus on these as exclusively for women. The authors point out that they are not talking about biological men/women but rather about the feminine/masculine psyche. But despite this clarification in the introduction, the distinction is not kept up throughout the book. It's true that there's still a lot of inequality between men and women, generally to the disadvantage of women. Still, I would argue that we need a fairer way forward, where we recognise the need for both sexes to deal with issues around self-worth and assertiveness etc… We have come a long way in recognising that there are more nuances in gender than a simple male/female divide. There is a whole range of differences between women, from the very timid mother-type to the ruthless political or business leader who just happens to be a woman. The same applies for men. I would have liked the book to make this clearer and to have kept its language such that it would have appealed to both sexes (I am sure many men would recognise themselves in the description of women in the book).

I'd argue that the time has come to focus on feminine/masculine characteristics which we all have, both men and women. Rather than using phrases such as 'empowerment for women' it would have been better to encourage both genders to seek their true self, pursuing the aspects of life which best suit them as individuals. As the book hints, in many countries women's emancipation, despite the best of intentions, has not really meant that women have been able to find their right place in society. Successful business women often have to adopt a masculine lifestyle, sometimes even sacrificing their roles as mothers altogether. Likewise, the sexual liberation of the 1960's failed to created generate a greater respect for beauty of and/or appreciation of the intimacy involved the sexual act. Indeed, has often resulted in a new kind of suppression for young men and women, who are pressured by their environment into sexual activity with which they are not comfortable. And equally, for many men the 'empowerment of women' has forced them into questioning their male identity. In other words, the pendulum seems to have swung too much in both directions rather than finding its right place. Perhaps it is time that we recognise our male/female differences as well as what we have in common and start working as a 'team'.

The book briefly indicates the (sometimes far from ideal) scenarios for women in different parts of the world along with the authors' vision as to how the ideal world would look. But, mind-changing alone (no matter how fervent and sincere) will not change the environment in which women live. My second issue with this book is therefore the lack of practical suggestions as to how to make women (and men) more 'empowered' in their daily life. By this I mean a discussion of how to deal with the practical day-to-day problems that both men and women often face in modern societies. Foremost among these (for most of us, at least) is child care. Without the help and support of the wider society (something which seems to be eroding on a daily basis) providing a secure and adequate environment in which to successfully raise psychologically healthy children will always be problematic. So, empowering women, even via the most powerful training, will not be effective if the women's life is restricted by having to act alone in providing care and attention for her children. And even in societies with good child care facilities, differences in earning power between men and women have to be evened out if women are going to have a real chance to empower themselves. Above all, if more attention in society is paid to providing good care for future generations, many of the problems described in this book will disappear by themselves*.

My final reservation is that although the book is dedicated to "women all over the world" it comes across as being focused on American women. This is not to say that the exercises would not work for women all over the world. It is more a lack of recognition of difficulties caused by the differences women experiences around the world, and a lack of more practical suggestions for change for women in difficult situations. As it is, the book may be seen by women suppressed by their culture, as too far away from their immediate reality. With the massive differences in attitudes to women in different parts of the world, I would think it is next to impossible to have the same message for all women. In Europe for instance, where women have a better chance of combining work and motherhood, thanks to proper child care facilities and better rights to take time off work for child care, their need for this type of empowerment is probably less than in the USA. On the other hand, in Asia and Middle East, women's focus is to achieve even the most basic equality before they can start thinking about any form of further empowerment.

Having said all this, I am sure this book has an audience with a number of women (and men) around the world.

*For more on how to change care for future generations see 'Gazing at the Stars' by Dr Steve Minett www.amazon.co.uk/Gazing-at-Stars-Steve-Minett-ebook