And then this so that's the positive feminine on the left and then on the right
That's the gorgon and that's the thing that fills you with terror when you look at it
There's another representation of the positive feminine. That's another representation of Mary
There are representations very much like this of Isis with Horus on your lap and people often consider those precursors. They're Egyptian
Egyptian statues precursors to the Christian iconography and
Well, I suppose in some sense. They are insofar as they predated them in time, but the fundamental issue is that
well that this image has to be held up as
Transcendent and by that I mean it's it's got to be it's an image that's got to be at the basis of a value structure
That actually works
insofar as there's going to be human beings because there aren't any human beings without the infant and the mother and so if that's not
Held up as a as an image of ultimate value then everything falls apart and it's something our culture does extraordinarily badly
I had a client recently
Admit to me in ashamed tones that she wanted to have children
I thought I said well you don't have to be ashamed of that
Especially not if you're talking to me and she said oh that's such a relief because I can't talk to anyone about it at work
They seem to think that it's you know degrading
That you can hardly diagnose a culture is more pathological
than than that that's so
appalling and it's so hard is one of the things I really feel badly for young women because they're not guided through this with any
Sense whatsoever. And I'll tell you what, my experience has been working with women and you can take this for what it's worth and
I've worked with women who've achieved the highest levels of their profession
I don't mean just in academia but a number of different fields. This is what happens
We'll take the typical woman conservative woman because they're more typical conscientious not particularly open
So they're they're dutiful people, you know, they're existing within the structures of their society
So I'll take female lawyers is a classic example, so they're very good at high school
Very hardworking very intelligent
but very but very dutiful and often rather agreeable and that's important because it means
to some degree that they want to please and they'll do what they're told and so part of the reason I think that women are
Outperforming men and in elementary junior high school high school and university is because they're more likely to be obedient
and I know that to some degree because we did analysis of students in Quebec and found out that one thing that
predicted grades over and above
Intelligence and conscientiousness was agreeable
Yes, and agreeable people got better grades than their IQ and conscientiousness would predict and that's particularly negative for men
So imagine this is what's happening. So
You're borderline student and you're also a bit
Rebellious and anti-social I'm gonna fail you like you're right on the cusp don't like you much you fail
You have exactly the same grade profile, but I like you
Tick you move ahead
you don't and so one of the things that's
Dividing men from women as they progress through school is the degree to which they're agreeable. Now that works out to some degree
For women in so far as the agreeableness moves them forward, but they encounter the negative elements of being agreeable later in their careers anyways
Their women are very good in high school, then they go to college. They're very good in college
They nail their damn grades
they do their studying they get their As and they and they
They ace their LSAT so they're smart, too
Then they go off to do their articling and they're really really good at it
And then they get offered an associate position and they're really really good at it
And then by the time they're 30, they make partner and let's say they're in
high-pressure, high paying jobs
250 thousand dollars a year three hundred thousand dollars a year five hundred dollars an hour. Okay. What's your life like?
You work all the time
Period 70 hours a week 75 hours a week flat out and you don't get to make any
Mistakes and if your client calls you at 3:00 in the morning on Monday on Sunday
You say I'm really glad to hear you hear from you because if you don't there's some hot law firm in New York
That'll take your client from you at a moment's notice and the client is paying you
Whatever the firm seven hundred and fifty dollars an hour of which maybe you get
350 and what they want is an answer about something really complicated right bloody now and
You can say all you want about the fact that women have a difficult time with that because it's a male dominant patriarchy any any female lawyer who's hit 30 and his partner that has any sense at all knows that's complete bloody rubbish
Its market determined right to the core what happens to the when they're in their 30s?
They all leave the high-end law firms. Why?
Because who in their right mind would want to live like that?
that's the issue right once you make about
$60,000 a year for your family, but let's say for you personally
Additional income makes zero has zero impact on your quality of life
zero
So why work 80 hours a week while man will do it some men very few a handful of hyper-competitive men
Who are obsessed with hitting the pinnacle of the given dominance hierarchy therein will happily work 80 hours a week and they'll forego
everything else
relationships family children way in the second category
And so those men are often very difficult to live with too. Because they're so obsessed with their career
It's hard to have a relationship with them and maybe they don't have much of a relationship with their kids
But they're damn good at what they do and part of that is is they're smart and disciplined and they'll work
Non-stop all the time. It's like an obsession and that's the sort of people who run things. Those are the people who run things
Well, they're often also disagreeable too. because you wanna manage people really?
They're not gonna like you
You know when it's not an easy thing to not be liked and actually if you're an agreeable person and women are more
Agreeable than men. It's quite painful to be disliked
but if you're a manager in an executive position
The probability that people are going to like you is quite low now
If you're a real son of a bitch
then they're gonna dislike you more but it's it's those sit those positions are very stressful partly because of the interpersonal dynamics and they're also
Incredibly incredibly competitive
So the women hit that at 30 and they're completely qualified in the law firms are bloody
Desperate to keep them because it's really hard to find highly qualified people, especially once you've put all that time into training them
Especially if they're also good at bringing in business the law firms trip over themselves to try to keep them
They can't the women think why in the world am I doing this? Why in the world?
would anyone in their right mind do this especially because often they're married by that point too.
Generally, they've married a husband who makes as much money or more than them. So don't need the damn money
And so they think well, there's more to life than this which is exactly the right thing to think
And so then they go and find a job
that's 9:00 to 5:00 and
Controllable so that they can hire a nanny and have some kids and have a life and it's like yes
That's the intelligent thing to do. So we've got things backwards in our culture. We're thinking at least in part
Why aren't there more women in positions of power?
wrong question
the right question is
Why are there any men at all who want those positions of power because it's not just positions of power
You have to be such a knot head to think that oh, it's a position of power
It's like sure but it's a position of overwhelming responsibility and if you make mistakes you're done
Right. It's not like you occupy that position of power and everyone does what they're told all the time in your life is easy
It's like forget about that. People are on your case to do exactly the right thing all the time
100% of the time and maybe you want that maybe you don't so the what I don't know what people think is
These people are all sitting in their offices with their like feet up on the desk smoking cigars and oppressing the world
It's like that isn't how it works those people they work
Flat out all the time. So and it's fine if that's what you want and some people are like that
They're hyper industrious people right from a trade
Perspective no matter where you put them if you put them in a forest with an axe
They just warn around chopping down trees non-stop, right because there it's built into them
but if you want to have a balanced life and you should want that, you know, because the other thing you'll find this is
God's gospel truth. Is that the older you get if you have any sense at all?
The more important your family is to you like that the utility of your career
Maybe that Peaks around 35 or 40 and it starts to decline
pretty rapidly after that and what happens if you're fortunate you have
Someone in your life that you love that you've woven yourself together with and you have some kids so that you have something to do
From the time you're 50 till the time you're 80
You