I was born in Seoul, South Korea, in 1981.

As one of three daughters, I grew up seeing my mom beaten up by my father's family and treated like a sinner partly because she bore no sons.

On family get-togethers, the adults rewarded my male cousins with more bulgogi meat and eggs in their rice bowls. They'd get bigger cash gifts every New Year's Day than the girls.

The grownups, women and men, would shrug their shoulders and say, "That's just the way things are," or call these gender inequities "tradition."

And I hated it.

Decades after moving to America, I also hated being treated like a second-class citizen at the nearly all-male hedge fund trading desk where I worked and got paid less than everyone else.

What I detest - patriarchal oppression and systemic disempowerment of women - fuels the fire of my vocation: helping women smash the glass ceiling.

Recently, I've come across a book that makes these painful experiences make sense within the broader context of the history of humankind.

As I often say in coaching, when you have a broader perspective, you realize you have more agency, power, and control than before. It's liberating and eye-opening, and I'd like to shout about it from the mountaintops.

The book is The Patriarchs: The Origins of Inequality*, by Angela Saini, a science journalist and author who teaches at MIT.

Angela joined me on the podcast to discuss the fascinating insights from prehistory -- yes, way before the invention of writing things down -- that debunk the myth that patriarchy is just "the way it's always been."

Now, please don't get the wrong idea. The book and discussion are NOT about bashing men or making the female gender superior to another (that'd just be perpetuating yet another form of oppression).

It's about going on a sober, science-backed journey through time, 10,000 years before modern civilization, to uncover the true roots of gender oppression.

When we take this in, we realize we don't have to resign ourselves to accept ANY constructed narratives about gender, identity, past, present, and future, including who we are and who we can be.

It's a POWERFUL revelation.

Listen now on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

Please share this episode with men, women, and nonbinary folks who need to hear this.

Enjoy!
Jamie

PS. After the family immigrated to America, my mom divorced my father, ran her own business, and put all three daughters through college on her own. She's my hero.

Here's me and my gorgeous, strong mom at my sister's wedding a few years back. Happy Mother's Day.