is for Generation in the A to Z of Tools for Legacy
In many ways the Women’s Legacy Project is about a point in time and the women who live in this nexus that connects awareness, challenges, and technology at this tipping point in human history and our planet’s life.
Our generation is a collection of women who lived through the moment when centuries and sensibilities changed, almost imperceptibly, into an urgent awareness of this moment of precipitous discontinuity. Climate change may well change everything, including social structure.
A generation is usually defined through cycles of population as time it takes for one group of people to replace themselves biologically. I like to use a rate of around 3 generations per century based on anthropologically informed genetic research. The generational length for women and men is slightly different, too. In the short term this means almost nothing. Women’s generational length is around 29 years and men’s is around 34 years. But taken over long periods of time, the rate of women’s evolution is more rapid than that of men.
Yep. Here it is, published research that shows women are more highly evolved than men.
Women who are old enough to be untethered from the daily demands of rearing offspring, and who are ingenious enough or wealthy enough to be geographically mobile, or savvy enough follow information highways and paths to trends around the world know that something is brewing in women’s culture. This make me want to yell out, “Coffee’s ready!”
What I’m hearing different groups and quite distinct types of women say, include:
- gender equality is at the core of sustainable development
- the feminine divine is the path forward
- women’s voices are the keys to freedom
Today’s women who are old enough to remember the last century know that women’s roles have expanded but we all know that equity has not improved and has actually worsened for many during the last decades. The one area that has improved is global communication. There is still an information divide, and there are information deserts, but communication is much easier across a much larger distance. The concept of Info Deserts intrigues me – just heard a talk today by CM! Winters-Palacio that covered this topic.
The first generation of digital grandmothers is right here, right now. Not everything is rosy, but women of a certain age are sage individuals and information archival and retrieval experts, for families, communities, and now for the global community. This really is changing everything!
Some of the best tools you might discover on your legacy journey may well be what other women know and share.
Global instantaneous communication can defeat hierarchical and patriarchal attempts to repress expression by gender, age, status, or other traits. As I always say, “Information flows toward freedom.”
Legacy Tools
April 2016 A to Z Challenge
Letter G Legacy of a Generation Tools for Legacy projects
There is so much in this post I think I need to read it a few more times to process all of it.
I am thinking that we are going backwards as far as equality.
My stuff isn’t always an easy read for thinkers. Over all I believe we are moving forward, but we are in a spinning eddy where everything is being mixed, and what shoots off from the mix will have evolved, become freer. I believe this and am working to make it a stronger trajectory.
I love that you see information as always moving toward freedom.. I do hope you are right – for our granddaughters and our great granddaughters.. I feel lucky to live in a world that is changing for the better.
Equality is a long march away, but we are certainly on the path. A very thought provoking and information dense post. Thanks for sharing.
Nilanjana.
Ninja Minion, A-Z 2016
Madly-in-Verse
Wow! An interesting post. I never thought to consider “generation” so fully. I must say, though, I’m delighted to be among the first generation of digital grandmas. As a long-distance one, I can’t imagine how painful the distance would have been for the previous generations. Then again, families of previous generations weren’t so scattered. Much to think about. I love your posts because they certain exercise my noggin’ and my perception of things. Thank you, Nancy!
I am glad you like the title I bestowed upon us. And it must have been so terribly hard back then.
women have come so far, and yet there is even further to go. I’m not sure there will ever be gender equality – especially in some cultures, but it’s a wonderful thing to aim for.
There is always more to be done.