about the crises facing us, we feel overwhelmed and tune out or become neurotic about recycling plastic or become absorbed in our own health and self-care. Can we creatively engage with what the future could be? There are a lot of books engaging with these topics—can we come together and read them, and discuss what steps we can take? Our children are not going to live in the same world we are living in. If we want to help prepare them for their future, we need to be informed and active.
While I have not been in the Netherlands for a few years, from what I have heard the Dutch have changed since the murder of Theo van Gogh. The perhaps naïve tolerance to differences, particularly in relation to immigrant Muslims, has changed to something much more harsh. This is a problem all over Europe: naïve “let’s all get along” progressives are being replaced by more rigid nationalisms that look back to traditional, racial definitions of citizenship.
The critique of the progressives makes sense—we are different, not just across religions, because there are different worldviews and values in conflict with each other. But the answer is not to try to return to the past. This rightward movement also wants to end women’s reproductive freedom and return to more traditional arrangements between women and men in life and marriage. How can we recognize differences and neither be naïve nor racist? What do we teach our children? Women could be much more involved in these questions and in finding solutions.
Is it necessary for women to become pioneers and why?
It’s very important for women to be pioneers particularly in light of the world situation that I just spoke about. In America, there is a long and proud tradition of frontier women who braved the wilderness to reach the next frontier. But women are rarely pioneers in other areas of life.
We will do almost anything for our children or for love. Yet to stand for something in culture that will make a difference to future generations as I am suggesting, that seems to be more difficult.
However if we want to develop a culture in which we are partners with men, then women need to be pioneers. Otherwise we leave the big stuff—politics, social policy, global warming, how we work, what we value—to men to decide.
What is the most important point for female leaders and pioneers to develop?
A much broader perspective and the heart and guts to take action in light of that perspective. So often, the frame of reference that we use for our lives has to do with how others see us and how we can protect our families.