21st Century is Century of Women
Dr. Emiliano T. Hudtohan, AB, BSE, MA, EDD
August 2021
Halu Oleo University
Kendari, Indonesia
Galactic Great Mother
The century of Women started in the 1980s and ends in the 2020s. According to Christiane Page (2008) “The Mayan calendar saw the beginning of an extraordinary journey of 36 years for the earth and its inhabitants, which reaches its conclusion just before 2020. For the first time in 26,000 years, the sun is most closely aligned with Great Cleft, Dark Rift or the Black Road of the Milky Way. Th road leads directly to the Galactic Center, or the heart of the Great Mother, and it is through this portal that we will gain access to the eternal source of all existence, the Mother herself. We travel and enter the Black Hole at the center of the galaxy. Here, we will experience the fullness of our potentiality, the unlimited realm of possibilities, and come know the true meaning of immortality.” (Page, 2008).
The vastness of the Universe is enshrined within us. Human is the microcosm of the Universe. According to Bluestone (1997) , “Western and Chinese alchemist had one thing in common…the smallest object of material reality was a reflection of a larger cosmic whole. [For] Monk Basil Valenti the human body was a microcosm of the universe. In the Chinese Tao, everything on earth was a reflection of its divine form.” (p. 62).
Thus, a metaphysical view of a human being is that it is composed of quarks, whose chemical formation is the same as the molecules, the cells, the solar system, the galaxy and the universe. Even the bubble formation in a coffee has similar formation. The big bubble is surrounded by small bubbles. We are encapsulated by the Great Mother and the Great Mother is within us.
Mother Earth
Women are a manifestation of the Great Mother and Mother Earth. Redmond (1997) noted that in ancient times women used the drums to care and nurture their community and the Earth and preserved the beauty of nature. But when men used the drums, ugliness was brought about by violence, conflict, and destruction. Women of old used the drums for healing, celebration, and sacralization of the Earth. They were governed by moral beauty rooted in Gaia whom we call today as Mother Earth and Galactic Mother whose ethos is nurture and care for making things beautiful.
The narrative on moral beauty is set in the context of Gaia in Greek mythology that has inspired writers to present new moral and ethical perspectives in the 21st century. In ethics, Gaian myth serves a mystical function because she enlightens our experience as a mystery; it has a cosmological function because she helps us understand the material world and the metaphysical dimensions of life that are invisible; it has a sociological function because she supports and validates our experience of the social order and it has a pedagogical function because she teaches us how to live in all circumstances (Campbell, 1991; Houston, 1998 Walsh, 2007).
Accordingly, Gaia teaches us that “When we join together we are capable of giving birth to the form of the organization, to the plan, to the values, to the vision…The Gaian organizational process principle is: Life seeks organization, but it uses messes to get there…And it involves creating relationships around shared sense of purpose…In Gaian story, this situation is influenced by the force of Chaos where creativity and freedom abound and by the force of Eros, where we are impelled to create through attraction (Wheatley, 1998). The women of the 21st century need to narrate their own story, having experienced daily the failure of the old story. The Gaian voices of women need to break their silence and share this new vision they have come to know.
Bonewits and Bonewits (2007) trace the Gaia thesis to Oberon Zell-Ravenheart in 1970 which viewed Mother Earth as a living being composed of the whole biosphere (Lovelock, 1972; Margulis, 1998). Grauds and Childers (2005) argue that while plants, animals, and humans have their own conscious life and experience, they both partake of, and are transcended by Gaia’s consciousness.
In Gaian theory, “the biosphere, atmosphere, lithosphere, and hydrosphere maintain a homeostatic condition and the Earth is seen as a single living super being. The workings of Gaia can be viewed as a study of the physiology of the Earth, where the atmosphere is the Earth’s lungs and circulatory system, the oceans and rivers are the Earth’s blood, the land and the rocks are the Earth’s bones, and the living organisms like the plants and fungi are the Earth’s skin and sensory system. All these are tied up to an infinitely complex network of feedback systems to maintain homeostasis. (Bonewits, 2003; Chamberlain, 205); Edwards (1995) links the Gaian hypothesis with shamanic wisdom that sees nature as a living organism. Shamans believe that “everything is alive. Rocks and crystals are conscious beings” (Edwards, 1995, p.206).
Redmond (1997) argues that our civilization made a mistake by choosing a tradition that followed a male dominant worldview. Climate change is happening because we are “divorcing ourselves from the natural world, we are doing violence to ourselves and to the planet. The tradition that we inherited from warrior nomads who viewed the natural world as an infinite source of new pastures to exploit and abandon have led to rampant materialism. Even now when ecological crises have forced us to reassess our relations to the environment, politicians take steps to ‘protect’ our resources solely so that we may continue to exploit them….our culture persists in behaving as if nature exists to serve the desires of one species that values itself above all other”(Redmond, 1997, p.187). Crowley (2001) redirects us to that Gaian spirit by suggesting that we try to sense the divine presence in the natural world beneath the concrete of the streets, implying that the sacred natural order is primarily the non-human natural order resident in Mother Earth.
Myss (2016) asserts that the 21st century needs the Sacred Feminine, who is the balancing force to Sacred Masculine and its intellectual energies of reason and logic. The Sacred Feminine and its subtle and magnificent force penetrate into every expression of life, bringing us into an awareness of the crisis within Mother Nature and awakening our mystical senses and mystical history. That Sacred Feminine is Gaia, re-emerging today as Moral Beauty to rule the conduct of society that has gone awry and in chaos.
Ethics of Care
Tong () emphasized gender feminism of boys and girls as a psychomoral development. Gender feminists believe that there are specific values and virtues that serve to empower men and disempower women in a patriarchal society. Thus, gender feminism seeks to liberate women from adopting male values and virtues and determine their own as empowered women. She hints at dual parenting as the best means to achieve the end of gender equity in everything, including the practice of morality.
Carol Gilligan (1982) In a Different Voice believes that men stress justice, fairness, and rights. But women focus on relationships and they stress on wants, needs, and interests of particular people. In Mapping the Moral Domain (Gilligan, Ward, Taylor, & Bardige, 1988) she and her colleagues claimed that the ideal moral thinker might be more inclined to an ethics of care than an ethics of justice. It appears that Carol Gilligan has added to the literature of ethics which was dominated by male philosophers and ethicists by articulating her Ethics of Care. This is in contrast to the Utilitarianism of Jeremy Bentham, Rights of Immanuel Kant, Justice of John Rawls, virtue of Aristotle, Thomas Aquinas and McIntyre.
Women Gurus in Management.
There are two approaches to defining effective management (Max Weber). But it was Dyck and Neubert (2012) that coined mainstream and multistream management. Mainstream management emphasis is on materialism and individualism and its primary goals includes maximizing productivity, profitability, and
Competitiveness. However, Multistream management emphasis is on multiple forms of well-being and multiple stakeholders. There are nine elements of well-being.(Dyck & Neubert, 2012). Aesthetic: beauty, 1. art, poetry.
2. Ecological: natural environment, minimal pollution.
3. Emotional: satisfaction, positive feelings, hope, joy.
4. Individual: personal convenience, one’s own interests.
5. Intellectual: ideas, clear rationale, theory, concepts.
6. Material: Finances, productivity, tangible goods, efficiency.
7. Physical: health, safety, security.
8. Social: community-mindedness, justice, helping others.
9. Spiritual: meaning, interconnectedness, transcendent,
An emphasis on leading: The “human” era (1930-1950)
1. Mary Parker Follett emphasized human rather than technical side of management,
arguing that managers should facilitate rather than control the work of subordinates Mother of Modern Management,” believed that management was “the art of getting things done through people.” … Direct contact between employees and managers helps organizations avoid conflict and misunderstandings
Sammi Caramela
business.com Contributing Writer https://www.business.com/articles/management-theory-of-mary-parker-follett/
The Management Theory of Mary Parker Follett Feb 22, 201 Mary Parker Follett was an American social worker, management consultant, philosopher and pioneer in the fields of organizational theory and organizational behavior. Along with Lillian Gilbreth, she was one of two great women management experts in the early days of classical management theory
Mary Parker Follett, or the “.
Mary Parker Follett, or the “Mother of Modern Management,” believed that management was “the art of getting things done through people.”
Though she never managed a for-profit enterprise, she offered valuable insight on the importance of “powering with” rather than “powering over,” and integrating with employees to solve conflicts.
“Leadership is not defined by the exercise of power but by the capacity to increase the sense of power among those led,” Follett once said. “The most essential work of the leader is to create more leaders.”
Follett practiced these principles of coordination that helped develop her theory of management:
Direct contact. Direct contact between employees and managers helps organizations avoid conflict and misunderstandings. Holding regular meetings or discussing assignments in person is a simple way to practice this principle.
Early stages. Coordination should be learned and mastered straight away. No employee should feel less important than the next; each has a significant role that compliments the roles of others.
Reciprocal relationship. Every worker, regardless of their level in hierarchy, is responsible for pulling their weight and integrating with the rest of the organization. No one person should be trying less or more than another – it’s a team effort.
Continuous process. Coordination must be maintained. Don’t just learn it and forget about it; channel it in everything you do.
Known well for her mediating tendencies and managing tactics, Follett created a management theory that is still in favor today. Its main principals include:
Integration
Follett thought that workers of all levels should integrate to reach the organization’s goals. If conflict arises, there should be a conscious effort to pull instead of push, and to work together as a team. Because each member is doing their part, overall, they’ll be more likely to be content with result.
Power with
Rather than establishing a strict hierarchy and delegating power to certain individuals over others, Follett believed that workers should practice co-active power. Powering with their team is better than powering over them; this way, each member feels just as valued as the next.
This is not to say that hierarchy should be eliminated entirely, however. Structure is still crucial, but employees should not feel like they are less valuable than their managers.
Group power
Group power should be valued over personal power. Organizations do not exist for one person’s benefit, but rather the entire company of workers. If this selfless mindset prevails, then all workers will feel like they’re on the same team, rather than in competition with each other.
2. Lillian Gilbreth studied ways to reduce job stress and argued for child-labor laws and
standard workday hours Lillian Evelyn Moller Gilbreth was an American psychologist, industrial engineer, consultant, and educator who was an early pioneer in applying psychology to time-and-motion studies. She was described in the 1940s as “a genius in the art of living.”
Lillian Gilbreth August 8, 2017 by Gary McCormick was first published by Redshift
How many industrial-engineering degrees does it take to be regarded as a pioneer in the field? For Lillian Moller Gilbreth, none—she had degrees in English and later received a PhD in psychology—but she’s a trailblazer all the same, one who envisioned a better work environment for all.
What makes her life and work significant to modern-day industry are concepts related to the field of workplace efficiency, which she spearheaded with her husband and on her own after his death. Applying the social sciences to industrial operations, the Gilbreths emphasized the importance of the worker—rather than machinery or other, nonhuman factors—to shape the workplace.
As a result of that work, Lillian Gilbreth was the first woman elected to the National Academy of Engineering; the second to join the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME); the first female professor in the engineering school at Purdue University; and until 2005, the only woman to have been awarded the prestigious Hoover Medal, which recognizes “great, unselfish, nontechnical services by engineers to humanity.” She received 20 honorary degrees in her lifetime.
“Lillian Gilbreth’s significant contributions in the areas of industrial management and business efficiency remain in use today in various forms, which is a testament to her lasting influence,” says ASME President Charla K. Wise. “The trail Lillian Gilbreth blazed for so many women like me who chose to pursue careers in engineering while contributing to ASME’s global community of members and volunteers continues to be inspiration for all of us.”
Born in Oakland, California, in 1878, Lillian Gilbreth was the oldest of nine children. She showed a talent for academics in high school and convinced her father to allow her to enroll at the fledgling University of California, Berkeley. Majoring in in English, she also took classes in philosophy and psychology (then part of the philosophy department).
She married Frank Gilbreth, 10 years her senior and the owner of a large construction company, in 1904. Frank Gilbreth was not university educated but was a follower of the work of Frederick Winslow Taylor, a leader in the field of scientific management. Frank Gilbreth encouraged his wife to pursue further education in psychology and apply it to the field of industrial management—which would help him in operating his firm and in finding ways to increase efficiency in construction operations.
The Gilbreths’ work in time-and-motion studies quantified and analyzed the factors affecting workplace efficiency: the number of motions involved in a task and, subsequently, the time required to perform it. They published their research in a book titled Motion Study in 1911; in 1912, Frank Gilbreth closed the construction business, and the couple became industrial-management consultants. Lillian Gilbreth’s education in psychology complemented her husband’s analysis of the mechanisms and physiology of workplace tasks, published in Fatigue Study (1916) and Applied Motion Study (1917). Her contributions emphasized the reduction of fatigue through better lighting, better-fitting chairs, and coffee breaks (far from a universal concept in 1916).
“Although they called it ‘motion study’ the Gilbreths were helping create the system now known as ergonomics,” says Jane Lancaster, PhD, author of Making Time: Lillian Moller Gilbreth—A Life Beyond “Cheaper by the Dozen.” “Under the influence of Lillian Gilbreth, they added the ‘human factor’ to Frederick W. Taylor’s time study.”
That work is the basis for many systems of predetermined motions used today, both in industry and in the home, and is based on three fundamental principles: Reduce the number of motions in a task to increase efficiency, use an incremental study of motions and time to understand an entire task, and recognize that the goal of increased efficiency is not only increased profit but also greater worker satisfaction.
After Frank Gilbreth’s untimely death in 1924, Lillian Gilbreth, who had downplayed her involvement in the couple’s management-consulting work, faced the problem of continuing that work on her own while raising 11 children.
“Dr. Gilbreth’s active and cutting-edge career in industrial engineering, coupled with her rich family life, was an inspiration and blueprint for practicing and aspiring women engineers who struggled to find role models for their careers,” says Jonna Gerken, president of the Society of Women Engineers (SWE).
The gender inequality in American society was magnified in male-dominated industrial fields, and Lillian Gilbreth’s consulting work fell off considerably after her husband’s death. This financial uncertainty led to Lillian Gilbreth’s first salaried position, in 1935, at Purdue University as a full professor of management in the School of Mechanical Engineering.
Lillian Gilbreth found a niche within engineering that sidestepped societal constraints: analyzing and improving workplace efficiency in job functions performed by women. Much of the Gilbreths’ work together had focused on ergonomics—the study of the physical layout of a workplace and its effect on operational efficiency—and Lillian Gilbreth continued that work in her new modus operandi.
One example was her work with Macy’s department store, improving the workplace layout and equipment design in the cashiers’ department, a noisy room full of pneumatic tubes and motor-driven belts. Her recommendations reduced the time for new employees to reach near-peak efficiency from four months to two days. She made similar studies in the typing pool, developing a more efficient system for keeping employee records.
Lillian Gilbreth’s reinvention as an expert in women’s work issues extended to the home, specifically to the kitchen. Her concept of the circular kitchen—a physical layout that reduces unnecessary motions and improves task efficiency—is known nowadays as the “work triangle.” She also worked with GE and other manufacturers to help them improve appliance design, with the goal of reducing wasted time and effort in the home.
As in Lillian Gilbreth’s analysis of the home, the Gilbreths’ approach to workplace management emphasized the person doing the work and the effect that workspace layout and division of labor have on fatigue and efficiency. While time-and-motion study was primarily her husband’s forte, Lillian Gilbreth’s understanding of workers’ psychology led her to recognize the importance of direct incentives, like money, and indirect incentives, like job satisfaction and fatigue reduction.
These contributions to workplace efficiency are indeed foundational. “All these years later, Dr. Gilbreth’s storied career continues to be a source of inspiration for current and future engineers and one we honor through our endowed scholarship in her name,” says SWE’s Gerken.
That inspirational legacy is still felt at Purdue University Libraries, where the Gilbreths’ extensive collected works and papers are archived. “The Gilbreth collections are used regularly by scholars and students to support a wide array of research topics,” says Sammie Morris, professor and head of archives and special
ollections at Purdue. “An undergraduate student recently consulted the collection for information on the application of industrial engineering projects to household chores.”
Such research queries—not to mention concepts such as job standardization, incentive wage plans, task simplification, kitchen design, and even coffee breaks—will carry Lillian Gilbreth’s legacy forward for centuries to come
School for Boys and Girls
De La Salle Lipa, also known by its acronym DLSL, is a private Catholic Lasallian basic and higher educational institution run by the De La Salle Brothers of the Philippine District Of the Christian Brothers in Lipa City, Batangas, Philippines. It was founded in 1962. The school became co-educational in 1973. In 1974 De La Salle Lipa followed suit upon the directive of Br. Benildo Feliciano, FSC, Provincial of De La Salle Brothers Philippines.
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Dr. Emiliano T. Hudtohan, an axiologist; he earned his doctorate in values formation at De La Salle University, Manila, Philippines. He teaches at the De La Salle Araneta University, Malabon Graduate School and Jose Rizal University, He was management development consultant of Metrobank and training director of Malayan Insurance Company. He is Vice President of International Association of Management and Human Resource Development (IAMHRD), Indonesia. His field of interest and expertise is business ethics, spirituality in the workplace and corporate social responsibility.
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