I like the new heroines modeled in today’s movies. Two in particular stand out for me: Katniss from The Hunger Games, and Ray from Star Wars: Episode VII. Both teen girls have experienced loss and both face dangerous adventures thrust upon them that they must overcome.
They are reluctant heroines; they didn’t ask for the problems that confront them. But slowly and surely, they embrace their strengths, gifts and power, and in doing so, they are able to overcome anything. Before our eyes, they transform into powerful adult women and leaders.
Both young women also have a nice balance of feminine and masculine energy. The feminine qualities they display are compassion, flexible thinking, collaboration, emotional sensitivity, intuition, willingness to show their emotions, and a vision higher than their own. Their masculine qualities include strength, independence, focus, aggression, bravery and leadership. In the book The Athena Doctrine, the authors surveyed more than 64,000 people in 13 countries and asked them to describe what they considered to be feminine vs. masculine qualities of leadership, and the lists were the same everywhere. Katniss and Ray were a good blend of these energies. People around the world also felt that feminine traits correlated with making the world a better place.
With all the hate and fear overwhelming people around the world today, we need leaders like Katniss and Ray who bring a balance of feminine and masculine leadership qualities. Our leaders need to bring more archetypical female traits like collaboration, empathy, patience, long-term thinking, winwin consensus, intuition, ability to see the perspectives of others, humility, and connectedness to their leadership.
Finally, we need to redefine strength, power and leadership for our children. They need to know that one can be powerful without dominating; independent without being isolated; autonomous, yet still interdependent; logical without abandoning intuition and emotion. Our culture tends to prize one kind of courage: the display of physical power in standing up to stronger opponents. As a result, courageous role models tend to be soldiers, cops, professional athletes or FBI agents.
I propose we teach kids that there are many ways to be brave and strong, among them: not caring what other people think; holding friends accountable; being inclusive, even when it’s not a popular move; bringing the class or team together; helping everyone to be successful; and taking risks by getting out of your comfort zone.
There is a heroine and hero inside every girl and boy; new role models like Katniss and Ray show them a different way to lead.
Tim Jordan, M.D., is a behavioral pediatrician who specialized in counseling girls ages 6 through college. He recently launched an online video parenting course, Taking Flight: Everyday Parenting Wisdom to Help Girls Soar. For more information, visit drtimjordan.com.