Women Are Actually Not Okay

Ancient Intelligence Weekly: 4/21

Happy Monday,

It’s official, women are ahead of men. Junior to mid-level women now out-earn their male peers across various professions. Women now outnumber and outperform men in universities across the western world. Women have succeeded.

But at what cost? Here is some data that I find interesting:

• The prevalence of the most common biomarkers of autoimmunity have quadrupled in the past 3 decades. 80% of people with autoimmune diseases are female.

• The usage of antidepressants has surged by 65% in the past 15 years with women being 2X as likely to take them.

• 30-35% of women have alarmingly low levels of progesterone. This is the key sex hormone in women: it preps the body for pregnancy, calms the nervous system, supports fertility, and balances estrogen.

Women are not okay and that is because women cannot withstand stress loads as well as men. The magical thing about women is how our bodies let us know if something is wrong, we just have to listen. The number of women late teens - 30s that do not have a cycle is alarming. No cycle means high stress. High stress for women means low happiness.

If feminism is about caring for what’s in the best interests of women, then feminism has been failing for a long time. Instead of caring about what most average women want and need (stability, relationship, motherhood), it’s been playing a zero-sum power game with the top 1% of men (i.e. Sheryl Sandberg).

And the effect? Still mostly male CEOs and more lonely, depressed, and medicated women everywhere.

Feminism painted a picture of women chained to stoves for most of history until the 1960’s finally broke them free. This is such a false history of how women lived pre-feminism. The 1950’s American housewife experience was a tiny blip on the radar of our collective relationship with each other. Women have been working alongside men since the beginning of time. In close knit communities, weaving, creating, teaching, relating, and most importantly keeping the human race going.

The reality is that what’s best for women is also what’s best for men and what’s best for men is also what’s best for women. It’s about time we get back to something our ancestors had right a long time ago.

On the Pod This Week: A solo episode answering subscriber questions. Enjoy (Spotify).

(Watch the episode on YouTube here)

Have a great week everyone,

Anya