Reply #76: My first response to reading your post was, are you SURE it wasn't

[SeattleGirl]

Phyllis? Since I wasn't at that workshop, I'm just speaking here from my reaction: it sounds like the message to the participants was that they should be less than who they really are. These kinds of things are designed, IMHO, to make women feel guilty about their strengths, their power, their positive sense of who they are, and to replace it with some fake "rules" about what women "should be". What women SHOULD be, and this goes for men too, is who they really are.

I believe men ARE both masculine and feminine; the problem comes in when a particular group tries to make everyone conform to a particular way of being. "You are a woman, so you must act THIS way." "You are a man, so you must act THAT way." Ugh!

The world will be a much better place when we can rise beyond these kinds of things.

And yes, the kitchen can be just as valuable as the front door (I assume you mean working outside the home?). That's the way it is in my house: MrSG is a fabulous cook, and I make more money than he does. We actually laugh at people who look askance at us because we don't follow the "tradition" way of being....