Margaret Thatcher, Angela Merkel, Helen Elizabeth Clark, Tarja Halonen

[Pryderi]

Western nations have had women presidents and prime ministers. How many western nations have had a president of a minority of another color?

[boricua79]

1. and a lot of those you listed were not great presidents at all

They were just women.

I've yet to be impressed by a female leader of another nation...maybe someone can give me some refreshers or alternatives, because my mind is thinking Indira Gandhi, Thatcher, Meir, Merkel, etc, and all of those are not appleaing to me.

[Pryderi]

2. Women Leaders in the World Link

http://www.terra.es/personal2/monolith/00women.htm

[Angela Shelley]

3. Have you asked yourself this question?

"How many female leaders of another nation were impressed by you?"

Please make a list of which male presidents of other nations have impressed you.

[boricua79]

5. no, but...I can give you list of women in my life who were impressed by me

Somebody's got a feminist itch...

Nice little swipe at the balls...missed...but nice swipe nonetheless.

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

4. Helen Clark.

Prime Minister of New Zealand.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helen_Clark

[boricua79]

7. thank you

based on the wiki you gave me, seems I would have liked her. and if I was in New Zealand, I would have voted for her.

[onenote]

6. I'm sorry, but exactly what point are you making?

[boricua79]

8. MMIAAAAU! RAAAURG

pffft....pffft! :sarcasm:

Relax ladies...

[goldcanyonaz]

10. That it's Obama's turn, of course.

[melody]

9. How many western nations have had to deal with governing 300 million people?

Humans are still primates and still, conscious or not, elect alpha males to lead them by and large.
The larger the pack, the more pronounced the need to dominate. The US has had many female political leaders
on small scale (which Merkel or Clark would be comparable to and perhaps even Thatcher). So long as there is
the appearance of a larger entity (aka us) "looking out for" the pack, females can dominate in smaller groups.

Happily, as we sluggishly move beyond our primate mode of thinking, we'll see beyond that. I believe a good
portion of this country already has. However, I still don't think Thatcher is a good example of a preferable
female candidate. This is the same reason I'm not voting for Hillary. As much as I'd love to see a female
President in my lifetime, I'm not going to vote for her just because of her gender ... that would be being just
as sexist as the men who won't vote for her because of her gender.

[Maribelle]

11. Do you exclude Central and South America as 'western nations'?

If not, I would caution you that the minority presidents of these countries have an extremely poor track record, and that a veritable plethora of literature regarding presidential regimes exists that have continually associated minority presidents to ineffective government and democratic instability.

[boricua79]

13. yeah, but the minority governments in Central America

have had poor track records because they are white elites (the minority in native/black nations) who have to resort to corruption and military repression to continue their rule because they don't represent the indigenous majorities. Being a minority is not really the issue, if you govern fairly. Being of the majority race is not the magic key.

If Obama can run fairly and for all people, no one will care that he's half-black.

[russian33]

12. Gandhi, Bhutto