Recently, I was engaged in a discussion regarding a Christian church and its inner divisions over the issue of sexuality and what I perceived to be the posturing of some African bishops. In this discussion, a priest whom I'd just met, responded to my angst with: "Africa has found its voice."

I sat back and had nothing to say and pondered those words for some days. Africa has found its voice? Yes, we're hearing increasingly from parts of the world we've classified as 'undeveloped'. This is due, in large part, to the rise of the communication technology which gives these voices the means to be transmitted around the world. We hear from Iran, Kenya, Venezuela, and discover countries we never knew existed. But who's speaking? Many of those voices are masculine, funded by the likewise masculine superpowers of the world. I still don't hear the feminine voice.

U.S. and European women have opportunities available to them which most women in the world don't have, yet we don't take advantage of these privileges to speak up or take action. And by 'speaking up', I'm not implying that we should do so in the way of a masculine culture. Rather, we gather in circles, we listen to be heard, we give the opportunity to women to speak for themselves and to tell their stories. Western women should let go of colonial and missionary approaches to helping the world and, instead, should hand over the microphone so as to let every narrative be heard. It's the paradox of leading by serving: nurturing the world back to health rather than giving it a quick quick-fix treatment or a pill. It's an approach to assistance that consists of coming alongside and walking forward together, but being only one face in the crowd.

The women I've met through my work at the UNCSW (UN Commission on the Status of Women) have little remaining tolerance for the 'liberation' of women of the West—mostly North American and European, mostly white and financially comfortable. While I do hear that individual North Americans are more welcoming and warm than our reputation suggests, I also hear of how appalled our visitors are at the fact that we, too, are a broken nation and a people in great need. To them, we appear to be blind to the fractured and unbalanced spiritual world in which we live. Our visitors don't give much credence to the idea that affluence and position make a person or country sound, when they are gained at the expense of others. Further, affluence and education seem to have been lost on the North American woman, judging from the fact that she appears to have no voice in what is perceived to be a free country. So, others are becoming increasingly skeptical that the educated and affluent Western female voice has any real influence in changing the world. There's a growing understanding that what's truly liberating is a spiritual—as well as an intellectual—knowledge, which fuels the feminine principle of power. It's an inner knowledge, not an outer dominance. What makes one complete—and, therefore, will facilitate the restoration of the world and its people—is development of mind, soul, heart, and body.

There's an emerging movement of the Divine Feminine and of the Healers of the Earth whose individual and isolated voices are joining together to create a swell of sound that will be heard 'round the world. Jean Shinoda-Bolen, who I've previously quoted, has written about the need for women to gather, again, in Urgent Message From Mother: Gather The Women, Save The World. Women of all cultures, faith, and traditions have a common ground on which to stand, and that ground comprises the feminine principles of birth and of healing.

Sufi teacher, Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee gave a speech, last year in Australia and New Zealand, about the critical need of the world for the woman to take the lead, so that the spiritual atrocities done to humanity and to the Earth by males might be healed. Many more women are being born as we are, in the age of the feminine, as it must be if this world is to survive. He even suggests that males are being reincarnated as women in order to bring a surge of the feminine influence into a battered earth.

We've been in an age when women have been finding themselves, identifying themselves, and claiming their voice. There is a danger that many masculine forces will find this threatening (and, indeed, do find it threatening) and so, by physical duress, try to silence the rising feminine message. A spiritual evolution is taking place and, fortunately, there are men who recognize the need to curb the unbalanced power in the world and allow the feminine energies to take hold and bring back our world—physical and spiritual—into harmony.

What my sisters from Africa, Asia, and the Americas have told me is: "You want to help change the world? Then tend to your backyard. Start sweeping at your feet." The United States, albeit in heavy competition for this position, remains the superpower of the world. With human rights abuses still on the rise, especially in regards to children and women, "“The United States is the only industrialized country that has not ratified CEDAW By not ratifying, the U.S. is in the company of countries such as Iran, Sudan, and Somalia."” CEDAW (the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women) needs the backing of the U.S.. (See Appendix) CEDAW, signed by President Carter, has yet to be passed by the Senate. This bill affects women and children around the world, giving them a presence at the table of governments, non-governmental organizations, lawmakers and enforcers, and an equal slice of budgets.

An honest appraisal of the present state of the world—and of world history—can give little credit to the masculine principle that has largely shaped it. Perhaps the feminine influence can do better. Yet again, perhaps a glorious balance and cooperation between masculine and feminine will achieve perfection, each enhancing the other and contributing its own unique qualities to an overall fullness which neither, in itself, can achieve.

One thing is sure, however. No such feminine contribution can emerge and bear fruit unless and until we give women their voice—and listen to it.