Thanks, everyone, for adding to this dialogue. I didn't realize that there were more women than men in the permaculture space, so thank you for correcting my assumptions!
My personal belief is that many of these leadership preferences and tendencies stem from sociological norms rather than biological ones, which is a factor of living in the culture that we live in, and maybe not something that permaculture is equipped to "solve" in its entirely. At least not in the short term.
In my professional life I run a software company, and in this day and age, it's still somewhat rare for women to build and run software companies. I can't say that I have all of the answers as to why more women don't assume leadership roles in the tech space, but it's a heated topic that comes up a lot in my industry. Which is partly why it's so interesting to hear perspectives on this same topic as it relates to permaculture. As someone who thinks a lot about user experience design in software, I ponder how certain design decisions (intentional or unintentional) influence behavior. Of course, many of the lifestyle designs (and patterns) that might influence a person to become a leader probably happen much earlier in life — long before a person discovers permaculture. It would be interesting to ask women in permaculture communities whether or not they would want to assume a leadership role. Then we could find out if there is any sort of personal or social (or other) barrier that prevents women from pursuing those roles, or if it's a matter of preference.
Do you think that both genders want more women to be in leadership roles within the permaculture community?
