Happy International women´s day!

There are certain things that women must appreciate from the inside out. There is nothing that I can say to add value to each woman´s mission on the planet. If you are a believer in God´s destiny for your life since the moment of your formation; then only God and you have the answer to your vocation or calling in life. It has taken me at least 30 years to arrive at what I will share with you today. First a clarification:

The term “Slavery” is used in this saga under the following definition: Modern slavery is the result of hiring people who are not treated with dignity when it comes to time schedule, salaries, decent basic lifestyle, and future opportunities for their children.

Double slavery for women is defined as the situation in which a woman is socially under modern slavery, and additionally also is a slave to his husband or any type of bondage at her home. Not every woman on earth is lucky enough to belong to the 16% of the population categorized as upper and middle class. There are 84% of women globally who suffer from at least one factor or more of multidimensional poverty. In consequence, a woman that suffers double slavery is one that is working under infrahuman conditions, she is mistreated by her bosses, receiving a salary that is extremely insufficient to pay a basic shelter, transportation, and food; and on top of that when she arrives at her place, she has to suffer from domestic violence from her husband, and she is responsible for all the home-chores without any consideration and help from the rest of her family. This lady is demeaned at her work, and degraded to a domestic slave at home. This is the case of a woman living under double slavery.

Women have been compelled to work by necessity. So, even if some religious leaders feel like it is a dishonor to work, and they wish us to stay at home and care for the children only, not all of us have the luxury of it. Sometimes, women are alone. Or if married, the husband is null, because after cheating and leaving her for another lady, all his income disappears. Or suddenly, women confront a widowed status, or basically her man losses his job, or can´t offer a financial enough inflow to cover all the needs and wants of the family. In any of these cases, women are enforced to work, in whatever career or position they can get or are able to find. There is a pile of expenditures, payments, incidentals, fixed fees, home charges, children’s spending, that women are obliged to bear, many times on their own, and it is impossible to stay at home. This is a tangible fact that we can´t ignore, and no woman of every society or culture, or country is free of it.  No one can accuse women of being Jezebels or transexual because we have the duty to work for paying our living expenses. No one. That is insane.

All these gender inclusion tags are wrong. Why do we have to fight for the inclusion of women in a society that first needs to acknowledge that women’s acceptance is not even a reason to battle for? Society has to accept that women are simply workers of excellence, no matter if these are workers by necessity or by desire? The legacy of slavery that we hold, positioned many women as double slaves, and this fact was naturally accepted for more than 6,000 years. For centuries, women and men were separate. And men were honoring the “income provider” title, meanwhile, women were glorifying the “double slave” title. This inherited “boys club” working model has proved to be a disaster. Of course, it may have worked for an elite, but it is not working for the majority of the population.

Eleonora Escalante Strategy concludes that the “identity of gender” and the “inclusion” terms were utilized wrongly by the feminists. In their quest to push for women to be considered equal to men, feminism introduced wrong concepts that have messed up the whole idea of putting women as part of the “problem solving” situation.

If we wish to provide a solid and biblical strategy for women in the long term, we need to go back in time, to the moment in which all these theories of gender and inclusion were conceived. By admitting that “gender inclusion” implied that women had to switch to be as men; that was the worst mistake of all. We are women. We are not men.

Sharing means loving each other. A woman and a man living in matrimony, if in partnership for a future shared family with God-Jesus-Holy Spirit at the center of us. This is the beginning. When kids are educated at home, since kindergarten to believe that they will study, cultivate themselves, learn to think and get ready to create a family; then they also need to learn that as a future constituent of the next matrimony, the forthcoming couple (both, he and she) will share life in every single aspect, at home, and including the time both will spend in their future jobs. That is when we begin to do things right. Not just for the sake of women, but also for the benefit of the little kids that require the presence of both parents and the shared responsibilities of both involved.

Each woman in the workplace has a different archetype.

1. No two alike. First, we must recognize that each woman, each of us is unique. Forced to work, we also show our character, our temperament, our personality, our way of doing things and relating to others differently. We are not all preset to be leaders as the world private and public existing entities (including religious organizations) wants us to be. Each of us has a unique way of being. Regardless the archetypes or whatever classification of personality, psychological tags, etc. Each woman is different, no matter if living in Africa, or in Asia, or in Minnesota or in South America. The term working personality (character, qualities, traits or temperament) has been messed up for women, because during the last century in which we were obliged to work, we were also forced to leave our “home persona”, and switch for a “work archetype”.  So, women were obliged to make-up not just superficially, but in temperament at the workplace, if they wanted to raise salaries or become leaders. Therefore, it has been silly to believe that each of us must fit in the pre-established “wrong” working structures by switching our natural behavior and temperament. We must admit that women have made themselves crazy by trying to show “men attributes” to fit. We are not men. Please we aren´t. The more we try to copy the characteristics of men in our life, the more we will end up hurting our souls and our next generations of women, and we will destroy ourselves in the intent.  Let me explain it this way with a simple essential example: Women don´t have to use a corporate black or blue-navy or grey suit once they join the business world. Of course, there are certain type of fashion rules that keep the spirit of decency and respect in the company, but why do we have to leave our beautiful floral or pattern prints dresses hanging in the closet… We can still wear dresses or skirts with feminine embroidered blouses, with a nice sweater or a jacket, and still look reverential in the office. Why do we have to copy the way man look? It is very stupid. Another example: Women don´t have to be rude or fight (with a combat attitude) as men if they want to be considered for leadership positions. Why? Because there are so many types of leadership styles (see slides below), and we can´t be forced to become dictatorial, authoritarian, or repressive. Women don´t need to copy the Neanderthal ways of men, or play under the usual leadership standards of men, which are also wrong by the way. Look at the conflict between Ukraine and Russia… a disaster of leadership “problem solving”.
2. The living fishbowl of each woman is also different.  That means each of us has been raised with a particular set of values under a unique type of household. Sometimes living in non-developing economies is the best thing that could happen to us, because we can avoid the vices and harm of the developed world. Why do we have to leave our better values (learnt in our non-developed country fishbowl) and change them for worst values of the developed town? Why do companies in developed countries make fun or see us as immature or non-tamed just because of living in the poor places? That is not correct. Women from non-developed economies, who have earned the capacities and capabilities for a job, who wish and can join an employment in developed economies, don´t need to change. Not even a piece of who we are. We are as fine and blessed as we are.  Why to force women to try to fit for the sake of being accepted? No, dear readers. So sorry, but that is disrespect. Developed countries working environments are obliged to respect different cultures and do not be racist with those women from developing economies who are trying to rise up.
3. We don´t need to feel as a failure just because we don´t fit in one place. Women don´t have to feel guilty neither annihilated by human resources or discriminatory bosses because that company is not their cup of tea. It is perfectly fine to try, and if it doesn´t work, well simply leave the things in a proper way, and continue looking for; maybe in another division. Probably the next job, with a new manager, will be the right one. Or there will be another type of functional role, or industry waiting for us around the corner. And if there isn´t one, we can create our own company, work hard, find a path that can open doors according to what God is requiring us to do in life. There is always a way.
4. The word service is wrongly defined. Service doesn´t mean humiliation. There is one type of leadership archetype called stewardship. And many women are naturally stewards in their personality and temperament. Also, there are many economies in which the service sector represents more than 50% of the G.D.P. In the United States, the service sector employs over 78.74% of the American work force (2). We need to recognize that the meaning of service is not slavery. Service sector employers who are blessed are those who rise their employees, and do not use them as servers for enslavement.  Don´t take me wrong, the slavery in which we have lived for 6,000 years in the past has nothing to do with the type of work (if manufacturing, service, or the knowledge economy).
5. Women don´t need to be better than men. Men don´t need to be better than women. It is not a competition. We complement each other.  Men do not have to impose a working lifestyle to women. Not even in dreams. But it is silly to believe that the change will start in the enterprises. The acceptance of the complementary roles for sharing will come from home, not from the office. Meanwhile our civilization doesn´t overcome the machismo culture that is so rooted in families, it is quite impossible to procure a new genuine universe to women in the workplace. What doesn´t change at home, it won´t change in the workplace either. That is why men are so needed in the equation to fix our issues at home and in the workplace. Without men helping us (our dads, brothers, cousins, male relatives or male partners for those who are married), we will never be successful in the workplace either.

If you wish to download the last document in PDF format. Click here:

Working towards a Godly structure for a complimentary sharing between men and women. During the next weeks, we will unfold what framework are we talking about. The life of the honeybees will help us to oversee it little by little. We will explore a new definition of working from the inside out, in which the family is the pivotal argument or line of reasoning. Then we will proceed to connect the dots from parents, to kids, to schools and universities. Then we will plug individuals inside the companies (for employment) and/or entrepreneurship endeavors.

Our aim is to build a framework, a model for a couple that works under a flexible format both, in which both care for the children, in which both feel happy and in which both are being role models of sharing complementarity… This model, if granted the possibility, will provoke a discussion, a design-based research process, that if demonstrates to be successful will be replicated generation by generation. We pray it will permeate naturally into the work entities (whatever the nature). It will take time, years, decades. But we need to put God in the center of our work, into our families, into our world.

Strategic reflection music section.

Why did we pick Lionel Richie? As a teenager, these songs transported me to the moment in time in which I can compare to relate with so many teenagers nowadays who are witnesses of war, uncertainty, addiction to social media, and digitalization. We wanted to share the type of romantic music that we grew up listening to. Lionel Richie composed captivating precious romantic lyrics for us. Despite the circumstances, love is always eternal, and we can´t forget how important is to pray for love and peace on the planet.

Songs for today belong to Sarah McLachlan. The first song is “Angel”, the second one is ” Prayer of St. Francis”. Happy women´s day. Enjoy!

Thank you for reading to me. See you next Tuesday. Blessings!

Sources of reference used for this publication

1. https://www.bhldn.com/products/marla-long-dress-ivory

2. https://www.statista.com/statistics/270072/distribution-of-the-workforce-across-economic-sectors-in-the-united-states/

Disclaimer: Illustrations in Watercolor are painted by Eleonora Escalante. Other types of illustrations or videos (which are not mine) are used for educational purposes ONLY. Nevertheless, most of the pictures, images, or videos shown on this blog are not mine. I do not own any of the lovely photos or images posted unless otherwise stated.

Published by eleonoraescalantestrategy

Corporate Strategy Artist, San Salvador, El Salvador View all posts by eleonoraescalantestrategy