Riane Eisler

Riane Tennenhaus Eisler (born July 22, 1931) is an Austrian-born American systems scientist, futurist, attorney, and author who writes about the effect of gender and family politics historically on societies, and vice versa. She is best known for her 1987 book, The Chalice and the Blade, in which she coined the terms "partnership" and "dominator".

She has written and been interviewed in over 500 articles. Her work is covered in publications ranging from Scientific American, Behavioral Science, Futures, Political Psychology, The Christian Science Monitor, Challenge, and UNESCO Courier to Brain and Mind, Human Rights Quarterly, International Journal of Women's Studies, and World Encyclopedia of Peace, as well as chapters for books published by trade and university presses (e.g., Cambridge, Stanford, and Oxford University).

Eisler pioneered the expansion of human rights theory and action to include the majority of humanity: women and children.

Her research provides a new perspective on our past, present, and possibilities for the future, including a new social and political agenda for building a more humane and environmentally sustainable world.

Her newest works draw from social and biological science, especially neuroscience, showing the interconnection between childhood/families, gender, economics, and story/language as cornerstones of either partnership-oriented or domination-oriented social systems.

Eisler’s multi-disciplinary whole-systems analysis highlights how traditions of domination underlie current crises, as well as how to move to a more equitable, sustainable, and caring world.