According to ChatGPT, femininity “is a set of qualities, behaviours, attributes and roles traditionally associated or culturally assigned to the female gender”. Which ones exactly? I encourage anyone reading this to get in touch with our new digital oracle because, regardless of whether you agree with them or not, they coincide in a very high percentage with the list of desirable qualities generally looked for in a good team player.

Does this mean that a team made up of women will always “perform better, contributing to the successful achievement of their goals while fostering a collaborative and positive working environment in which every individual present can thrive”? Not so fast… Taking that for granted would be assuming that gender determines those qualities and, if you ever decided to subscribe to this newsletter, you should know that's not at all where we stand. For us, gender and what’s associated with it is a social construct. What this list of attributes rather refers to might be that ‘teamwork based on feminine qualities makes the dream work’. Of course we will not be the ones to contradict Mrs. GPT in this case.

We do not know what kinds of ‘feminine’ qualities might make the cut in, let’s say, 2054. As the social construct that it is, the understanding of femininity will continue changing over time. We suspect, however, that very few people will find the items on such lists relevant. If we believe the ‘gender shift’ to be a megatrend – and we definitely hope that it is –, not only will gender possibly lose its social significance in terms of roles, but diversity and identities not being conditioned by biological sex might also be the norm. A not-so-weak signal we can find today? The countertrend ‘tradwives’ as part of an increase of the hyperfemininity – and hypermasculinity! – waves inhabiting some corners of the digital space. Be it as it may, looking into the future we say YES to femininity and NO to its association with gender.

Of course we also asked ChatGPT what femininity – or rather, typical feminine qualities – might be, in the eyes of tradition and standard societal practice. The list they spat out rather surprised us: it almost reads like a job description in the age of #newwork; a list of requirements any good leader or team player should possess. Here goes:

• Nurturing
• Empathy
• Compassion
• Sensitivity
• Gentleness
• Intuition
• Collaboration
• Expressiveness
• Creativity
• Adaptability

On the one hand, it can be taken as a hopeful sign that ‘feminine’ qualities are all the rage – seemingly exactly the kinds of qualities that are future-relevant if we hope to succeed in the face of complexity, uncertainty and all things climate catastrophes. On the other hand, femininity is still very much linked to sex (and gender), and negatively so. It’s no coincidence that ‘feminine soft skills’ are often taken less seriously and, as found in a study from 2019, “associated with wage penalties, while soft skills perceived as being stereotypically male are linked to wage premiums.” So, while we still live in a world where gender inequalities are the norm, let’s try to imagine and – work towards – alternative futures in which we get to keep ‘feminine’ qualities such as compassion in our most wanted lists but without any of the negative baggage attached to what it supposedly means to be ‘feminine’.

...a ‘man bun’ is just... a bun.*

^{*Thank you to Linus Giese, our inspiration for this quarter's preposterous future, who kindly shares his thoughts on unlearning gender in unlearn patriarchy.}