Partnerism is an economic and social system based on caring and nature, with an emphasis on a social system based on equality of women and men. It is a direct alternative to domination culture, an economic and social system ruled or dominated by men. Unlike Capitalism and Socialism, Partnerism recognizes the economic value of care and adequately rewards it in both the market and non-market sectors. Partnerism was first coined by Riane Eisler in The Real Wealth of Nations  and most internationally recognized in The Chalice and the Blade.

Domination/Partnership Social Scale

Hierarchies of Actualization

A Partnership System is not a completely flat structure. We can’t just do away with hierarchies. Sometimes someone has to make a decision. Riane Eisler coined the term “Hierarchies of Actualization” to describe how hierarchies are constructed in Partnership Systems. In Hierarchies of Actualization, parents, managers, leaders and others in positions of authority seek to uplift and empower others. In hierarchies of domination, rigid rankings are used to control others and keep people deemed inferior “in their place".

The Four Cornerstones

Riane Eisler’s research reveals four interactive levers for shifting away from domination systems toward Partnership Systems. Eisler’s scholarship directs us to focus our efforts in these four areas as foundational to build Partnership Systems. In a hierarchy of domination, accountability, mutual respect/ mutual benefitonly flow from the bottom up. In a Hierarchy of Actualization, they flow both ways. And that’s a huge difference.

Family & Childhood relations

**Partnerism values the work of caring.**Neuroscience shows that what children experience and observe, starting at birth, determines how our brains develop and therefore how we think, feel, and act. Infants and children absorb partnership or domination worldview's from parents' relationships with each other and from their relationships with parents and siblings, long before they go to school and long before critical mental faculties are developed.

Gender relations

**Partnerism values all people, regardless of gender or other differences.**How a society constructs gender roles and relations not only affects everyone’s individual life options; it affects families, education, religion, politics, and economics. When people learn to equate the physical differences between male and female with superiority or inferiority, dominating or being dominated, being served or serving, they internalize a template that can automatically be applied elsewhere: race, religion, ethnic, sexual orientation, etc..

Economic relations

**Partnerism recognizes that the real wealth of our world consists of the contributions of people and of nature.**The gap between haves and have-nots has been growing among and within nations. This is a crisis. Moving to a more robust, sustainable and humane economics is not only vital for human and environmental reasons, but for purely economic ones. A caring economics of Partnerism recognizes that the real wealth of our world consists of the contributions of people and of nature.

Narrative/Language

**Partnerism supports empathetic, mutually beneficial, caring relationships.**We need the language of partnership systems to transcend old categories and to describe beneficial social and economic systems. A caring democracy requires accurate narratives about 'human nature'. This will require a concerted effort in which the arts, music, literature, and education are informed and inspired by science and caring values.

New Economic Map

The Partnerism economic model includes the full spectrum of economic relations, from how humans relate to our natural habitat. This requires a complete and accurate map that includes all economic sectors with the household as the core inner sector. In the dominator economy, the foundational economic sectors, household, unpaid community, and natural are N/A (not applicable), omitted.

Restructuring Economic Systems