Power of the feminine

For the past two decades, humanity has been working with new energies and one of these is the rise of the feminine energy. By this we mean the awareness of women’s personal and collaborative power that is awakening the world to a new way of being. Terms like the “sacred feminine” as the wellspring of creation that births both male and female forms have brought back ancient beliefs that resonate with the need to balance the polarity of the male-dominated world of aggression, war, conquest. Today, Earth is Mother, women’s rights are clearly upheld and fought for and the world has seen remarkable women leaders creating transformation and change.

What is it that drives us women so hard to prove ourselves? And yet the drive continues to create imbalances in that no matter how successful some women become, the satisfaction is still not there, the balance not met. Torn between career, family, relationships, women still struggle for that balance to allow the feminine power to arise.

We need to feel comfortable with the feminine power. We need to recognize that in our lives that seek to balance our inner energies with our outward accomplishments, we must acknowledge our need for support, for teamwork and collaborations. Embracing our nurturing abilities, let us see these as advancement and growth in the career field and not as hindrances.

I love working with strong women as there is a creative force of change with every one of them. I love empowering and inspiring women (men, too) in that I have seen how our quiet, loving, strengths focus our men and help raise them up. I have seen how women together can truly create change in the world.

At Global Sourcing for Women Vendors Forum are Chit Juan, SGV senior adviser and Ambassador Delia Albert and Chongqing Chamber of Commerce chairman Liu Qingrui.

This year has been an inspiration for me, and an eye-opener at the tremendous power of women collaborations. Last May, the Global Summit of Women in Istanbul, Turkey (often described as the Davos of Women) brought me into a grouping of close to a thousand women. Leaders, business shakers, NGO heads and movers from all over the world came together to share, talk, widen their networks and learn new things to further support the cause of women’s advancement economically, and as change agents all over the world. What was special there was the announcement of a United Nations move of creating a single UN body tasked to accelerate progress in achieving gender equality and women’s empowerment. The new UN Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women — or UN Women — merged four agencies and offices: the UN Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), the Division for the Advancement of Women (DAW), the Office of the Special Adviser on Gender Issues, and the UN International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women (UN-INSTRAW).

This year at ECHOstore, we saw how our 100 percent women-led business, with a supplier base of 75 percent women suppliers also had a 85 percent base of women customers. Last September, the Global Women Vendors Exhibition and Forum, a global platform on sourcing for women vendors was held in Chongqing, China. It was led by the International Trade Center (ITC) of the World Trade Organization (WTO) with other partner women groups. Out of 300 companies, only 70 companies were chosen. ECHOstore Sustainable Lifestyle and Le Bistro Sustainable Coffees were chosen to participate from the Philippines. I represented ECHOstore under the textile sector and Chit Juan represented Le Bistro Sustainable Coffees under the coffee sector. Both of us suddenly found ourselves representing two industry sectors for the country.

For the first time, many Fortune 500 companies are taking their supplier diversity programs global to actively source from women in target markets. As sourcing is no longer local or national, this forum introduced an enormous opportunity for women from around the world to sell into global supply chains, including women from developing and transition economies.  The objective: to link buyers and sellers together. We were introduced to companies such as Walmart, Marriott, Accenture and other international groups and businesses. The experience provided us with great opportunities to bring our Philippine community textile, goods and coffee products to the global market. The Chongqing Forum was hot on the heels of the first ever APEC Summit focusing on women and the economy held a week before in San Francisco. State Secretary Hillary Clinton, a remarkable role model for the feminine power, called on countries everywhere to tear down barriers that keep women out of the workplace.

In the Philippines now, women are becoming a major force in the economy as many of them are becoming entrepreneurs in the micro, small and medium enterprises. The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) data states that around 900,000 businesses in the MSME segment and about 60 percent are registered by women. Women are responsible for work on 70 percent of agricultural lands and also control 70 percent of the spending money that moves this and the global economy. They are the major producers and consumers. They actually move the world maybe even more than men do, economically speaking. And it’s a well known fact that micro-financing payback is almost 100 percent when women are beneficiaries. It is in the country’s best economic interest to develop more women leaders, put them in positions of decision and encourage women to open businesses and start new enterprises. (Question: Why doesn’t the DTI have a Women’s Desk?)

The Women’s Business Council, with new dynamic leaders and a growing membership, is embarking on more active programs to connect women with women for business mentoring. More women are doing businesses from the home, and even the numbers of women-mom bloggers are making their presence and voices heard. We need to have all these avenues for women across the country to support and encourage one another, no matter which decision they make in their lives. Just support, encourage, nurture, love. This is the power of the feminine as we have known it. Expressed in every woman today is the evolutionary push for humanity’s next level — balancing off the polarity of the male energy with that of the female.

So, we women need to collaborate for positive activity, focus on detailed orientation for the vision of economic empowerment, renew a national and world sisterhood that shares the distinct objective of helping other women advance. All these we need to manifest in each of our own lives!