International Women’s Day: The most important day on earth for humankind.

 Every year on International Women’s Day, we celebrate the achievements of women in politics, science, business, and culture. But beneath all their accomplishments lies something even more fundamental: women are the primary architects of human life itself.  See today’s Washington Post’s obituary of Paula Doress-Worters, who helped break the silence on post postpartum depression who live decades after darkly experiencing motherhood after her first child’s birth. Plus Physicist Tammy Ma’s quest for clean energy and abundant power for future generations!

No wonder, the tracking of our sapiens genetic origins comes only by looking at the female mitochondria.  Simply because the male’s mitochondria are left behind in the tale of the sperm cell - shortly after its nucleus penetrates the egg’s Zona Pellucida, a unique barrier covering the egg’s outer cell wall.  That miracle layer has the capacity of detecting only the sperm of its own species.

More evidence of the perfection of the female’s body systems can be found by comparing the totality of chromosomes between the 2 sexes - and understanding that 1/4 of one pair of the 23 chromosomes in every male is missing.  Is this the cause of ‘testosterone poisoning’ that most males experience?   Next, contemplate ‘why do men have nipples?’  Is this just a symbol reminding us of how useless and expendable most of us are?  

While male superiority in physical strength has worked in controlling and winning elections - we have thus far been only somewhat helpful to our species.  Adam Smith and Thomas Paine’s contributions months before the Declaration of Independence contained the wisdoms the world needed then- and needed far more now -regarding the fundamental principles of economics and politics.  But were ignored by the majority of males in power then. And worse now since the invention of nuclear weapons.  Weapons of mass destruction that the majority of powerful men remain delusional about.  They imagine “Peace through Strength”, fueled more by testosterone than wisdom, and continue to fund and defend - regardless of the terror of these that most of humanity holds as a “self-evident” objective Truth.   Even still after two World Wars, a potentially catastrophic Cold War, and the endless war against terrorism, a tactic that can never be defeated.  This should be self-evident after killing hundreds of millions lives and spending countless trillions of dollars.  

Once male domination was clever and persistent enough to globally eradicate the Smallpox virus which had killed more people in 70 years of the last century than all the wars and genocides combined over that entire century.   Then failed to address the root causes warned about in Jimmy Carter’s 1980 bi-partisan President Commission on World Hunger.  A prioritizing of soft power to stop the smaller national conflicts.  Exactly those that have kept Polio from becoming mankind’s second greatest microbial victory over invisible species plaguing our infinity vulnerable bodies. The globally persistent myth of male superiority - regardless of females outnumbering males and outliving us – must change. 

One simple solution to reversing the failing democracies worldwide, is for men to empower women in ruling the world. This transformational change is urgently needed now.  Male egos are unlikely to accommodate this wisdom but imagine a world that only allowed females vote to vote and be elected.  There is historical evidence of indigenous cultures holding this wise prioritization of leadership.  Wise decision makers recognizing and respecting nature’s interdependence between all living and non-living things.  These indigenous females had deeper and longer-range thinking (honoring seven generations before them and considering the seven generations to follow).  Unlike the typical reactionary, risky, and too often violent actions that many males find difficult to control.

Biologically speaking, the future of humankind depends on two very different contributions. Men provide a small but essential piece of the puzzle—genetic variation. A variation that strengthens our species by expanding the diversity of traits enabling us survive changing environmental conditions, but more importantly our best defense against invisible microbial killers, the greatest threat of every higher life form’s immune systems.

Women carry a more complex responsibility.  The female body nourishes, grows, and protects new life for roughly nine months before birth.  Typically they continue the labor of nurturing, teaching, and stabilizing families for years afterward. Civilization quite literally begins in the arms of mothers.  The flourishing of humankind requires unity – not division.  Meanwhile, majority of elected and armed males continue defending concepts that once bonded our tribes and enabled them to grow.  But now, everyone’s mind must quickly adapt, if our species intents to survive, thrive, and flourish.  The new mental construct is health of everything for global sustainability. Health of mind, body, spirit, family, community, environment, government, and economy.

Truth is - females hold the real power to make this happen.  Men seek power and money because they understand that women want and need it.  And for now, must still get it.  But it’s love that everyone needs to lead a meaningful and rewarding life.  Having children is optional.  But ensuring their survival, and for any generations to come, a global mental shift is needed. From “Peace through Strength”.  To “Sustainability through Health”.  

Scientists speak of three systems in the universe whose complexity rivals anything else we know: the natural ecosystems of Earth, the immune systems within all higher life forms still around (after 3 billion years of testing), and the human brain.  A fourth deserves special recognition and protection.  The female mind.  Its remarkable capacity to manage emotional intelligence, social networks, caregiving, and resilience under conditions that would overwhelm many systems designed by engineers – and doing this only with the wisdom of natural intelligence (not AI).

Human survival has never depended on strength or competition alone. Our greatest evolutionary advantage as a social species has always been cooperation, coordination, compassion, empathy, and the ability to nurture the next generation. Those capacities are deeply embedded and reflected in the work that women perform every day (often without pay) in families and communities across the planet.

Men, of course, still play an important role. Our evolutionary task has largely been protection, helping to safeguard the families we create. But now, with the creation of multiple forms of Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD), with only one partially controlled by the reality of MAD (Mutually Assured Destruction) must be urgently replaced with (MAS) Mutually Assured Sustainability.  A global plan has already been approved.  It attempts to achieve what Eleanor Rosevelt leadership envisioned with her leadership in gaining global approval in 1948 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In 2015 leaders from most nations and thousands of organizations worked out and approved 17 Sustainable Development Goals to achieve by 2030.   Few American’s are aware of these.  More importantly the 17 goals contain 169 subgoals within them.  Affordable, measurable, and achievable subgoals that every community globally can use to measurably improve the local conditions they prioritize.   The wealth of humankind plus the availability of affordable, sustainable solutions has never been greater.  And time is running out.  The evolution of globally disruptive and unsuitably costly forces that independent nations will never stop with walls or weapons.

A global mind shift to prioritize “the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God” – accepting our universal interdependence cannot wait longer.  We must abandon the flawed concept of independence that has prohibited the repair of the US Constitution and the UN Charter needed to achieve their preamble intentions.   Its past time we prioritize the power of Women in our era now defined by accelerating global challenges.  From climate change to pandemics, an unending evolution of wars and weapon systems, to Truth decay and political polarization.  The qualities most needed now for human survival look less like domination and more like nurturing systems that sustain life.

This is the deeper message of International Women’s Day: Men need to roll out the red carpet for women- and honor their greater half of humanity as they work more wisely and underpaid, yet most directly sustain the future of humankind.  

Perhaps the word ‘mankind’ should be changed to womankind.  Because the basic and most perfect human form is that of a female. Males will forever remain a genetic mutation - originally purposed for ensuring genetic diversity.  But now, with the evolution of AI and biotechnology- males may no longer be needed.  We can be useful.  Hopefully as nature’s restorers, public entertainment, and occasional playthings.  Even if not reliable for the surviving, thriving, and flourishing of future female generations.  This is not a threat.  It’s an inevitability.