What Would the World Look Like if Women Held the Power?

What would the world look like if women held the power? Not borrowed power. Not conditional power. But the default. What if spirit inheritance passed from mother to daughter? What if the gatekeepers of power were women, and men had to navigate the systems they created?

The Essence of Power

It wasn’t about flipping the script to create fantasy wish-fulfilment. It was about pressure-testing the world. Because in ours, women are still silenced in too many places—politics, temples, boardrooms, and beds. In our world, strength is often measured in muscle, not memory. It is assessed in volume, not vision. So, I wrote a world where the opposite was true.

And then I asked myself: Would it really be better? Or just different?

The Power Shift

In Spirit Walker, women don’t just hold spiritual power—they shape how it’s accessed. They decide who walks through the fire and who burns in it. Matriarchs broker marriages. Priestesses guard ancestral truths. A girl’s ceremony can change her future, while a boy’s path narrows unless he proves himself… again and again.

Sound familiar? Even in this reversed world, injustice breathes. The difference is who is holding the knife.

What About the Men?

I didn’t want to make men accessories or villains. That would be lazy. Instead, I asked: What happens when strength is your only currency? How does a boy grow when tenderness is treated like weakness? What does masculinity look like without dominance?

Some of my male characters struggle. Some comply. Some rebel. Even those we might call “alphas”—men born to lead—find themselves running uphill in a system that was not built for them. It asks for submission and then resents them when they offer it. I wondered: is that how some women feel in our world? I let the discomfort linger on the page.

Me Too, But for Them?

Let’s be honest—abuse of power is not gendered. In Spirit Walker, I explore what it looks like when powerful women are also cruel. When ambition twists. When sisterhood excludes. When survival means silence. You’ll see the cracks. I put them there on purpose. Because power doesn’t purify. It just reveals.

What Can We Learn From This Made-Up Place?

I didn’t write Spirit Walker to say, “This is how it should be.” I wrote it to ask, “What if?” What if our systems weren’t built to favour only one kind of voice? What if strength included softness? What if leadership looked like listening? And most importantly—what kind of world could we build if we took the best of both?

A New Shape

This book isn’t an answer. It’s a mirror. I hope when you read it, you don’t just see my characters. I hope you see your world… slightly off-kilter. Just enough to make you ask new questions. And maybe, just maybe—imagine new futures.

Conclusion: The Journey Ahead

As we delve deeper into the themes of Spirit Walker, we can reflect on our own lives. The exploration of power dynamics is crucial. It prompts us to question the status quo. It encourages us to envision a world where everyone has a voice.

By examining these narratives, we can learn valuable lessons. We can strive for a society that embraces both strength and tenderness. In doing so, we pave the way for a brighter future.

—

L.N. Bokete

(Writing from the in-between. Building what could be.)