Saturday, February 09, 2008

Women on Top

The media is absolutely going nuts with Hillary Clinton and campaign to be the first female president of the US.

Woman, Female, Gender, Oh my...
Woman, Female, Gender, Oh my!

Woman, Female, Gender, Oh my!

I wish they would leave the gender and race out of the political discussions because to me, it is irrelevant to a person's capabilities. I heard a woman on the radio say she wasn't going to support Clinton because she didn't whether other countries would respect her as President. Americans need to look beyond what the media tells them.

Let's backtrack here.

Currently there are 19 women in national leadership position. Of the monarchies, 3 Queens in Denmark, Netherlands and UK. There are 6 female Presidents in Argentina, Chile, Finland, India, Ireland, Liberia and The Phillipines. There are 6 Prime Ministers in Germany, New Ze
aland, Mozambique, The Netherlands Antilles, Ukrain and the Aland Islands. There are 3 Governor-Generals, who serve as heads of state for Antigua and Barbuda, Canada and Saint Lucia.

Of course, this is not to say all is balanced in the world. Here's a list of countries that do not have enough women in leadership. Even though India has a female President, there are less than 10% in the cabinet.

Here are the stats for women in the US Cabinet positions:
George W. Bush: 15%
Bill Clinton: 37%
George Bush: 24%
Ronald Reagan: 10%
Jimmy Carter: 15%
Gerald Ford: 6%
Richard Nixon: 4%

While there may not have been a woman running the West Wing, it is important to note women like Madeline Albright as the first Secretary of State (and Condoleeza Rice is the current one), which is the 4th in the hierarchy for Presidency. Now Nancy Pelosi is the Speaker of the House, which is behind Dick Cheney in succession.

While Ms. Clinton's campaign and fervor is definitely historic, we have to see that women in politics has come a long way globally.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I am not a Hillary supporter, but I think she is getting negative publicity precisely because she is a woman, and the wife of Bill Clinton. Does anyone (in the press) discuss in detail Michelle Obama?
I agree with you that a person's gender or race shouldn't matter.