When Women Rule (NYT)

[katty]

more: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/10/opinion/10kristof.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

When Women Rule

By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF The New York Times
Published: February 10, 2008

While no woman has been president of the United States — yet — the world does have several thousand years’ worth of experience with female leaders. And I have to acknowledge it: Their historical record puts men’s to shame.

A notable share of the great leaders in history have been women: Queen Hatshepsut and Cleopatra of Egypt, Empress Wu Zetian of China, Isabella of Castile, Queen Elizabeth I of England, Catherine the Great of Russia, and Maria Theresa of Austria. Granted, I’m neglecting the likes of Bloody Mary, but it’s still true that those women who climbed to power in monarchies had an astonishingly high success rate.

Research by political psychologists points to possible explanations. Scholars find that women, compared with men, tend to excel in consensus-building and certain other skills useful in leadership. If so, why have female political leaders been so much less impressive in the democratic era? Margaret Thatcher was a transformative figure, but women have been mediocre prime ministers or presidents in countries like Sri Lanka, India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, the Philippines and Indonesia. Often, they haven’t even addressed the urgent needs of women in those countries.

I have a pet theory about what’s going on.

In monarchies, women who rose to the top dealt mostly with a narrow elite, so they could prove themselves and get on with governing. But in democracies in the television age, female leaders also have to navigate public prejudices — and these make democratic politics far more challenging for a woman than for a man.

[niyad]

1. k & r

thank you, I missed that article.

[katty]

3. sure, some valid observations, I did not view it as

a pro-male candidate piece-more, here are the some of the obvious, knee-jerk reaction obstacles that the voting public needs to get beyond.

[pitohui]

2. in monarchies the women could cut the fuckwits' heads off

i'm sorry that he feels this is one of democracies' drawbacks, that women can't "prove themselves" by simply killing the fuckwits who try to push them off the throne

old people, short people, brown people, black people, they all have to navigate public prejudices, that's life in the big city and shouldn't be used as an excuse to crap on female candidates (or anyone else who happens to be in an unpopular group)