Since a few years now, gender is ‘on the table’. In the landscape of personal development, more and more trainings pop up around this theme: women’s circles, men’s circles, reclaim your female power, masculine embodiment,…
A lot is going on, and still … even today this is a theme surrounded with mystery and sometimes even discomfort.
At the Heerlijckyt, we host since the beginning a few trainers who explored this theme thoroughly. Tamara Lenaerts is one of them. One day she launched the dream to create a Women’s Festival, a gathering of women in the castle to explore the Feminine through workshops and sharing moments. And so it was. More than 10 years later, hundreds of women gathered in the castle to explore and to share. The result? Personal growth. Network expansion. And also something quite difficult to grasp. Maybe this text from a newsletter Tamara recently shared, can clarify it a little …
‘But you have a gender network, right?’ I suggest.
‘Right,’ she says. ‘A good working network. With a high turnout, engaging topics and interesting speakers.’
‘And we find that we need something else. That for many women the network does not meet a need that also exists: that of being able to speak openly and honestly with each other in the safety of a small group. To share concerns and insecurities. As well as ambitions and dreams. And find a sounding board in other women. (Recognition. Learning from each other. Lift each other up.)
‘And it’s not so much the young women who raise this need. It’s the women who have been working in the company for a number of years, and are actually ready to take on a senior role. And with that, are going to move up to a level where the vast majority are still men. It is they, who could really use this push, that back support from female colleagues.’
‘Can you guide that, one of those kinds of meetings?’
I had three of these conversations in the past month. With women from three different large organizations.
It seems like a new demand is emerging; now that every self-respecting company has a gender network, now a new need is presenting itself. Or the time is here to give it a name.
In “Tamarian” I would say:
It is time for in-company women’s circles.
For unadulterated sisterhood in business.
For Futuring the Feminine.
But that language still sounds too much like ‘yoga’ 15 years ago.
And ‘mindfulness.’
So I say, ‘Yes, I can do that.
Meetings like that with just women?
I can set that up and guide that for you.
That’s what She & Company does.
With great pleasure.’
