Have you heard? There’s a new women’s movement underway. The Goddess Movement is a new trend in business and it isn’t just here in Los Angeles, the one city where you’d expect to find it. No, the Goddess Movement is nationwide. More and more women believe that a shift to the divine feminine will not only heal us as a race, it will heal our world economics and our planet as well.

As with any new trend, all the information must be sorted out before we make snap judgments about its merits. At its core, the Goddess Movement has a valid and important message: women are worthy and must understand their own value and worth to succeed.

Women do have the capacity and combined strength to change corporate America and in turn, the way we treat each other. However, in order to accomplish these herculean tasks, men and women must cooperate with each other, not compete with each other.

In the past, women believed they had to be just like men in order to compete and succeed in a ‘man’s world’. Experts now advise that women need to understand and accept their individual worth as a woman, not as a woman imitating a man.

Annette Farrington of The Emergence Project, believes “This is a global revolution. The divine feminine is the archetypal mother, the compassionate nurturer and creator, reflecting our highest and best qualities.” According to Farrington, “Businesses need to encompass a more sustainable and compassionate model. To survive, the human race must reawaken the divine feminine or risk annihilation”.

That women will save us all from annihilation is one of the foundational beliefs of the modern day goddess. The reality is that both men and women are going to have to save us all. Why must it be exclusively women?

According to Brooke B. Farrell, founder of the venture backed software company Recycle Match, “Women can totally turn things around in corporate America. Women’s opinions are others’ are badly needed in order to bring new, creative, different and disruptive ideas to the status quo of business”. Brooke has been working to change the male dominated software industry. “While the ‘goddess’ concept is probably a fun, attractive way to energize women enough to bang their heads against the glass ceiling, in the long run it has some drawbacks, especially if you take it too seriously”.

Balance is a powerful tool. In her book Knowing Your Value: Women, Money, And Getting What You’re Worth, Mika Brezezinski shares the journey she’s taken to finding her worth, value and voice in a male dominated workplace. She’s learned first hand that men can be our allies and partners as well as our teachers. If women create a movement that is too “women-centric” then there is no balance.

Mika interviewed successful women to discover why so many are struggling to find their own value. Many acknowledge that we have a lot to learn from men. According to Obama senior advisor, Valerie Jarrett, “We are our own worst enemy…Somehow it’s unseemly for women to promote themselves.”

Pushing men away won’t help the cause; we need to elicit the help of our male counterparts. Harvard’s Hannah Riley Bowles says, “We do need men to sponsor women very badly; they’re in positions of power. When men in positions of power decide to clear that path for you—make sure you get the right exposure, make sure you get to the right meetings—that means a great deal…”

According to Carol Smith, Chief Brand Officer at Elle, “We women think we will work very, very hard—we will work harder than anybody in the office—we will get the gold star, and the money will come.” The problem is, we don’t ask for what we want, we over-do, which is decidedly NOT feminine. In fact, it’s masculine. But women leave out what might be the most important part of doing: asking. Money doesn’t just come to men, they ask for it. Men ask for what they want all the time.

Unfortunately, in an MSNBC survey, “more than half of all men and women agree that women are harder on other women in the workplace than they are on men”. Whether it’s jealousy, feeling that they are being overlooked ‘so why should I help someone else’, or just plain fear, women don’t help other women. Women need to change within themselves and start lifting each other up.

No matter what we call this new movement, it’s all about balance. Women need to own their own self worth and support other women in doing the same. We need to collaborate with men rather than battle against them, otherwise no one will move forward. To me, tapping into your divine feminine is simply about claiming your own gifts, sharing them with the world and supporting others to do the same, both men and women.

by Carolyn Ziel For The Huffington Post