The Power In A Gathering Of Women
Forget "fight or flight" as the only duo of responses in the
face of stress. For women, there's a third response: "befriend".
A landmark UCLA study turned five decades of stress research on
its head with the revelation that a cascade of brain chemicals
gives women a larger behavioral repertoire when confronted with
stress. The hormone oxytocin is released as part of the stress
response in women. It controls the fight/flight response and,
instead, encourages her to tend children and gather with other
women.
Accordingly to co-researcher Dr. Laura Cousino Klein, now
assistant professor of bio-behavioral health at Penn State, the
study suggests that this "tending and befriending" response to
oxytocin produces a calming effect. Although it will take new
studies to reveal all the ways in which oxytocin encourages
women to care for children and band together, it might also
explain why women consistently outlive men.
I have addressed numerous women's conferences and corporate
networks of women and I can attest to the observable behavior
that participants leave these sessions feeling stronger,
encouraged, and positive. I believe they also leave healthier.
The famed Nurses Health Study from Harvard Medical School found
that the more friends people have, they less likely they are to
develop physical ailments and the more likely they are to cope
better with challenges.
Sadly, today's busy agendas often find women canceling the most
positive and healthy thing they can do: gather with other women
to engage in the kind of "rapport" and "report" talk that
hallmark feminine conversations. The corporate women's networks
that generate the most return for the time and money investment
allow for the nuts-and-bolts training needed for the business
while also creating plenty of opportunity for mentoring,
problem-solving and the informal sharing of personal issues.
Create a gathering of women and stand back. The energy reborn
from conversation, caring, compassion and concern can move a
community, a business, and a nation into a higher place.
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