Calgary, June 2023
I read the daily news and, as the wise king Solomon said 3000 years ago, there is nothing new under the sun. We have a war in Ukraine, some time ago United States lost the 20 years’ war in Afghanistan and before that they lost the war in Iraq. If we dig bit more into history, in the 1980s Russians lost the war in Afghanistan and Americans lost the war in Vietnam. Since then, nothing has changed, and the king Solomon was right. Nothing new under the sun.
It appears that we don’t govern this world all that well. More specifically, men don’t govern this world all that well, because, with small exceptions, men are the one who govern. Old men with huge ego and little imagination. Therefor, the question is, how would the world look like if it was governed by women? It is hard to say, but there are legends about times when women governed. One of them is the story about the women’s war against men. Supposedly it happened in the nineth century in Bohemia, under the Czech queen Libuše. She governed justly, but men didn’t want to listen to her. When she died, men took away all the female rights and privileges, and women got mad. Under the leadership of Vlasta, they started the war against men, but it ended up in a disaster. Writes a Czech historian and writer (and also mi relative) Alois Jirásek:
Vlasta led her troops to a battle, but they were overwhelmed by men. Vlasta died fighting and women, without their leader, couldn’t resist anymore. Men were piercing their bodies with swords and didn’t spare anyone. That was how the women uprising ended.
Men were piercing their bodies with swords! All those beautiful, young, brave women! Even now I feel sorry for them. Women are here to be loved, not pierced with swords. But I write a story and can say whatever I want, so I let the women win. In my story they defeated men and occupied their castle. Women won a great victory, Vlasta declared herself a queen, but the question was: What now?
“A new era has arrived, and men will be our servants,” declared Vlasta to the leaders of the uprising. Everybody agreed but one of them, Marta, realized that it wouldn’t be that easy.
“It is all very well,” she said, “but without men we will go extinct.”
This was true, so Vlasta continued: “Lot of the dead men owned properties. We will divide their assets between us, and if you find a good-looking young man, bring him here and you can make him a father of your child.”
The population didn’t like that arrangement very much but couldn’t do anything. They were all afraid. Within a year some of Vlasta’s women had children and Marta had a cute girl. Vlasta was hoping to have one too but was bitterly disappointed when a boy was born. According to her own rules the boy should become a servant, but Vlasta couldn’t see him as a helper in a kitchen. He was a son of a queen. She made sure that he always had a teacher who reminded him of that.
Time was passing and Marta’s girl, Helena, and Vlasta’s boy, Vojtech, were 16 years old. Everybody expected Helena to be the next queen and Vlasta was worried about Vojtech. “I think Vojtech would be a good partner for Helena. He is smart and has a good education,” said Vlasta one evening, and Marta agreed. There was no wedding, men were destined to be servants, but when Vojtech was lying in bed with Helena, he whispered to her ear:
“Helena, darling, I know you women govern, but sometimes it doesn’t make sense. For example, look at blacksmith. How can a woman govern a blacksmith if she cannot lift the hammer? Or a soldier. Men fight better than women.”
Helena mentioned that to her mother and Marta told it to Vlasta.
“It came from Vojtech, didn’t it? I told you he isn’t stupid,” she replied.
Some changes were made, there was more whispering to Helena’s ear, and the life returned to normal.
I started this story by asking how the world would look like if it was governed by women. Judging from what I wrote, I don’t think it would be all that different from what we have now.