While this slogan has a long history, to me, the future is female means that we must look to the female archetype, for alternative forms of leadership. It means we ask, “what can we learn from the female energy in our lives?” It means we live in a world that is emotionally intelligent. A world that is collaborative. A world in which we are linked and not ranked, as Gloria Steinem has brilliantly explained.

The future is female does not mean female over male, nor is it trans-misogynist.                   The future is female means that we will no longer live in a world that believes that hierarchy and zero sum games are the only viable forms of social organization. It instead offers up the alternative that each person has something unique to contribute to the world, and therefore our job as an interconnected is to create space for each person to be their best and most authentic self so that they can contribute their gift. The slogan suggests that circular organizations of leadership may serve each of us better than hierarchical ones.

Regarding trans-misogyny, while past feminisms have long been criticized for excluding trans-women in the fight to end oppression, future feminism seeks to take an intersectional approach and actually learns deeply from our trans-sisters – trans women’s ability and bravery to live life as the very gender identity they are. Moreover, in a future that is female, we recognize that the world is a better place when each person is provided with the environment they need to embody, whatever identity they chose to be. In a future that is female, we believe that we have just as much to learn from the contributions of women and non-gender conforming identities as much as we have to learn from men. But for too long have we operated in a system that espouses toxic masculinity – systems in which we construct false hierarchies that benefit some and hurt others. For example, in 2016, the United States chose to elect President Donald Trump, whose brute force, apathetic, and insensitive style of leadership has prevented him and therefore our country from listening more in order to arrive at the safest, healthiest and cleverest decisions. The person who screams the loudest should not be the person to lead. Rather, the person with the sensibility to know that listening to each perspective will enable them to arrive at the best decision is the person fit to lead. Finally, decisions should be made by decision-makers directly affected by those decisions.

We say “the future is female” as a call to action to remember that we have so much to learn from those whom have been typically underestimated in a cis, heteronormative, caucasian-led, patriarchal system.  We say “the future is female” as a personal reminder to ourselves that each of us has a voice, and that we must own it. We have heard critics of the Black Lives Matter movement say “all lives matter”. This is foolish, as all lives are not under siege in this country the way that blacks live have been for centuries. So the slogan “black lives matter” exists because we have to remind you. When we say, “save the dolphins,” we don’t mean “kill the whales”. Similarly, when we say, “the future is female”, we say it to serve as a reminder that alternative and possibly stronger forms of leadership lie in untapped resources. That hope lies in looking to those voices that have been typically unheard. That hope lies in passing the mic to those who have never had a mic before, and having the bravery, respect and diligence not to speak over them.

In modern history, there have been few examples of female leadership. We do not know its power, its breadth, its diversity.

What would a future that is female look like if we gave women, non-gender conforming individuals and those who are woke enough to learn from the female energy in their lives, the chance to lead?

Read: “The Future is Female” Lyrics by Madame Gandhi.

Listen: “The Future is Female” Song by Madame Gandhi.

Watch: What “The Future is Female” means to me.