Why Matriarchal Leadership Should Be the New Standard…including in your Messaging.

As soon as we start saying things like “Matriarchal Leadership” or the more dramatic “Down with the patriarchy!” and “Eff the patriarchy!”...people think we hate men.


But matriarchal leadership does not mean “only women should lead.”


It is not a gender requirement.


It is a values system for how power gets used.

The leadership standard we’ve grown accustomed to (and what it produces)

Many of us were raised to view “leadership” as:

• unshakeable certainty
• taking up space at all costs
• winning the room
• never admitting fault

That’s not just a personality type. It’s a patriarchal model of power.

And it shows up everywhere:

• In politics: leaders who treat accountability like weakness and critique like an attack.
• In business: “growth at all costs” cultures where power concentrates fast, empathy becomes optional, and the human cost gets dismissed as collateral.
• In homes: the paycheck becomes the power, and the unpaid labor becomes “not real work.” That’s how you get a household that runs on one person’s invisible backbone.

Think of the Elon Musks, Jeff Bezoses, and Mark Zuckerbergs of the world. Not because they’re movie villains, but because they’re living symbols of what our culture often celebrates: centralized control, scale-first decision-making, disruption as virtue, and the myth of the lone genius shaping the world.

Look at our current administration. What we’re witnessing across politics and business is not leadership, but pure, blood-thirsty power-tripping.

That’s patriarchal leadership. And sure it can be effective at conquest. But conquest never lasts. And we are seeing that change now.

If we zoom out even further, we can see the deeper pattern underneath. European imperialism didn’t just extract land and labor. It exported a “leadership” model:

• hierarchy
• domination
• dehumanization as policy
• “force creates order”

And that model didn’t land on empty ground.

Many Native communities held leadership structures rooted in reciprocity, relational responsibility, and accountability to people and land—including matriarchal systems that were later disrupted by imposed colonial hierarchies.

So when I say “matriarchal leadership,” I’m naming a standard we need if we want leadership that doesn’t require harm to function. Leadership that doesn’t just build for the now, but sustains for the future.

So what is matriarchal leadership?Matriarchal leadership is leadership rooted in care, clarity, protection, and long-term responsibility.

Not “soft.”
Not “nice.”
Not self-sacrificing.

It’s power that refuses to be violent in order to be believed.

It’s leadership that remembers: I am responsible for what my power does to people.

Real-world examples of what this looks like:

If you want to see the difference between patriarchal leadership and matriarchal leadership, look at what happens when a leader is handed a moment that could easily become an excuse for domination.

After the 2019 Christchurch mosque attacks, Jacinda Ardern did two things that matter for this conversation.
First, she refused to platform the shooter. She publicly said she would not speak the attacker’s name, centering the victims and their community instead.'

Second, she paired empathy with policy. Within a month, New Zealand passed sweeping gun law reforms, including a ban on military-style semi-automatic weapons, with Parliament voting 119–1.

That is matriarchal leadership to me: grief without spectacle, action without cruelty, protection as the point.
And if you want an example that speaks directly to power + tradition + legitimacy, look at Claudia Sheinbaum.
On her inauguration day, Sheinbaum participated in a public ceremony in Mexico City’s Zócalo in which Native women performed a traditional cleansing ritual and she received a bastón de mando (a ceremonial staff of authority / responsibility).

Whatever someone thinks politically, that moment is symbolically loud: authority framed as service and accountability to community, not just conquest.

And when it comes to dealing with Trump’s tariff threats, what’s notable is the posture: cool-headed, firm, and specific. Reuters reported that she read a letter aloud warning that tariffs would lead to escalation and put shared business at risk (“one tariff will follow another…”), while also warning of inflation and job losses.

That’s not performative dominance. That’s boundary + consequence + protection of people’s livelihoods.
Let’s also remember the Freedom Summer of 1964, which was primarily initiated and led by Bob Moses of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), along with Dave Dennis (CORE), and activist Fannie Lou Hamer, who pushed for voter registration and the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party.

It was a campaign to register Black voters in Mississippi, because they were being systematically blocked from voting. But it didn’t stop at protest. The movement built infrastructure: Freedom Schools, Freedom Houses, and Freedom Libraries—spaces for education, safety, and civic power in communities that had been deliberately denied all three.

That’s what I mean by matriarchal leadership. It fights a specific injustice and insists on a universal standard: if democracy is real, it has to be real for everyone.

The missing ingredient: Accountability

Here’s the part people conveniently forget...Matriarchal leadership knows how to be accountable.

It knows how to say:

• “I was wrong.”
• “I’m sorry.”
• “That impact matters.”
• “I need to repair this.”
• “And if it’s time for me to step down, I will.”

Because matriarchal leadership isn’t obsessed with winning the room. It’s committed to protecting the people. And yes—sometimes protecting the people means releasing power.

Why this matters in your messaging

Because your messaging is one of the main ways people test:

• Is this person trustworthy?
• Is this person safe with power?
• Will this person tell the truth even when it costs them?
• Will this person respect my agency?

Patriarchal messaging tends to:

• overpromise
• pressure
• perform certainty instead of earning trust
• treat people like targets, not humans

Matriarchal messaging does the opposite:

• it tells the truth clearly
• it makes room for nuance
• it honors agency
• it builds safety
• it invites commitment without coercion

The question I keep coming back to

Does your messaging sound like someone trying to be unchallengeable…or like a leader who listens? One who earns trust, not demands it.

Matriarchal leadership isn’t perfection. It’s responsibility.

And if you’re building a brand, a platform, or a campaign right now, that has to be the standard. Not because it’s trendy. Because impact that lasts is built on trust—and equity is what makes that trust mean something: power used to widen access, safety, and opportunity so more people can thrive.

What does matriarchal leadership mean to you?

Stay curious Culture Changer,
🎈Justine

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Red Balloon Station is a creative hub for storytelling and brand messaging, dedicated to amplifying the voices of equity-driven Women of Color entrepreneurs and creatives. Through strategy, storytelling, and sales, we’re here to help you harness your own words and stories, forging meaningful connections with your dream audience and making a lasting impact on people, the planet, and culture.


Justine Wentzell-Chang is an Eldest Daughter of Immigrants, Mother, Activist, and your Station Master/Chief Word Witch at Red Balloon Station bringing you strategic messaging and story-centered, conscious copywriting services. 

With a law degree and over a decade of experience making & writing movies that sell globally, I learned a thing or two about writing stories that sell. Now I’m here to give you a spoonful of strategy and conviction to make your words convert...in the most unforgettable way!

Your story deserves to be told—by you. For too long, others have controlled the narrative, distorting the brilliance, resilience, and impact of Women of Color. But we’re here to change that, because you’re not just building a brand; you’re shaping culture, challenging the status quo, and creating a ripple effect of empathy, equity, and positive change. My job? To make sure your messaging reflects that power—clearly, confidently, and with staying power.