We’ve all heard the narrative: men hold power because male social structures are hierarchical—Jordan Peterson has explained this in detail. Men form ladders: leaders at the top, competition below, status determined by ascent.

From this, modern feminism concludes that women are helpless victims trapped under “the patriarchy.”
But that’s only because feminist theory recognizes one model of power: the male one.

Women have always expressed power differently.

I never internalized the victim narrative because I intuitively understood female social influence long before anyone tried to indoctrinate me out of it. And much later, while studying both the Ottoman Empire and the Blackfoot Sundance traditions near my home in Calgary, everything clicked: some cultures understand power not as a ladder, but as a circle.

And women thrive in circles.

While researching my novel about a concubine who becomes a warlord, I came across Empress of the East—the biography of Roxelana, one of the most powerful concubines in world history. In it, the historian explains that the Ottomans visually imagined power as concentric circles, not vertical structures.

At the center: the Sultan.
Around him: the women of the harem—his mother, wives, concubines, children.
Beyond them: the palace officials.
Then nobles.
Then the courtyard.
Then the world.

Power........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)