Career Stories: Riane Eisler

Career Stories: Riane Eisler

Career Story: Riane Eisler

Here’s a story about a woman that I stumbled upon when watching an old podcast on “Thinking Aloud.” and was surprised and delighted to learn about this woman and her story. I hope you are too.

Riane Eisler’s direct experience at age 7 of fleeing Nazi controlled Austria in 1938 led to her quest as to why some people are so cruel, and why did they get that way in the first place. This curiosity and deep concern lead to her life time work in exploring the development of domination and partnership cultures.

Riane was born in 1931 in Vienna, Austria to well off Jewish parents, and lived a carefree childhood until 1938 when the Nazi’s invaded Austria and broke into their home and took her father away. Her mother was courageously able to follow his pursuers and pay for his release. They were able to escape and book passage on the last boat to Havana, Cuba, one of the few countries that were accepting Jewish refugees. 

Riane and her family lived seven years in Havana’s industrial slums before emigrating to the United States and living in Florida and eventually ending up in California.

After a failed marriage, and with two daughters, Riane, as a single mother, pursued her doctoral degree in law. She worked as a family attorney and women’s rights activist. Overworked, Riane became seriously ill. This prompted her to re-evaluate her life.

Riane began a ten year journey to answer questions that were born out of her experiences as a child in Nazi Austria. Questions such as, “why do we hurt and persecute each other?”  With her moves from Austria to Cuba to Florida to California, Riane observed cultural dynamics and, “I learned that what people consider ‘just the way things are,’ is different in different places, and I learned that not every cultural tradition promotes cruelty and abuse or caring and respect.”

This insight prompted her to explore historical cultures and civilizations that demonstrated caring and respect. This exploration took her way back in history, as far back as 30,000 years, where Eisler found evidence of what she called “Partnership Societies,” which were mostly egalitarian. Advances in archaeology, anthropology and DNA studies, led her to find that these cultures go back to 6000 B.C. and range from France, east to the Balkan countries  and including Turkey and the island of Crete; as well as in the Americas, India, China, England, and Africa. In these Partnership Cultures the goddess, mother figure was worshiped, there were not hierarchical levels of power, there was a balance of genders and violence was minimal. Women played a key role in all aspects of life. There were also complex social organizations as well as elaborate religious and governmental institutions. Peace prevailed for thousands of years.

Eisler found that it was only in the last 5,000 years that what she calls “domination cultures,” based on male dominance, violence and warfare took hold. These dominator cultures became the norm in many parts of the world. Examples being the Romans, Nazi Germany, the U.S. treatment of and domination of Native Americans, and non-white races, Russia under Stalin and now Putin, Saudi Arabia and South Africa during apartheid. This work led to her renowned book called “The Chalice and the Blade,” now in its 37th printing. 

Eisler believes we need to rewrite a lot of the old myths.

Comparing the two models:

Domination System:

  • Authoritarian and inequitable family, social, and economic structure.
  • Subordination of women/”feminine,” to men/”masculine.”
  • High degree of abuse and violence to maintain top-down ranking.
  • Beliefs and stories that justify and equate domination and violence with “real masculinity.”

Partnership System:

  • Democratic and economically equitable family and social structure.
  • Equal value across genders including high regard for values historically deemed “feminine,” like caregiving and nonviolence.
  • Mutual respect and trust with low degree of violence.
  • Beliefs and stories that give high value to empathic  and caring relations.

This work of Eisler led to her work on creating a caring economics system with a human infrastructure. Current examples of countries with this caring economic system include the Scandinavian countries, such as Sweden and Denmark. 

Eisler founded and is the president of the Center for Partnership Studies, now called the Center for Partnership Systems to address education, research and advocating for addressing the current need for a more caring economic and social system throughout the world. Eisler emphasizes the value of caring for people, and caring for the environment and has developed a measurement system with a team of economists called the Social Wealth Index. Her research provides new perspectives on our past, present and possibilities for the future.   Eisler has developed the Partnership/Domination Social Scale to measure each country’s level of partnership and domination.

Eisler states, “we were not born with the unhealthy habits we carry. We had to learn them. So we can unlearn them, and help others do the same.” 

“Rather than being a utopian dream, a more peaceful and egalitarian world is a real possibility for our future.”

Resources, readings and viewings:


I hope your mind was expanded and that you learned from Riane’s story.

If you are exploring your own career options, or know someone who is, consider reaching out to me for a free 30 minute consultation to explore the possibility of working together. 303-819-6178 or danmacy@yahoo.com