Cork Views: Our world needs more female leaders

I watched in despair last month as President Trump and a roomful of male goons berated a man fighting for his country, for not wearing a suit, for not being grateful, for not trusting a potential ceasefire with Vladimir Putin - who is responsible for the deaths of 58,0000 Ukrainian citizens.

A man being bullied into agreeing to hand over his country’s mineral wealth without a reasonable security guarantee.

I watched in horror as the tirade continued and not one voice in the room shouted stop. I did not see a single woman among the leaders of the pack upbraiding a man on his own, whose country is at war for over three years.

Why were there no women in the room?

Around the same time, my niece delivered a baby girl into the world. Living in Berlin, with her German husband, she called her Maeve.

“The name symbolises strength and sovereignty,” she wrote on social media. “I am hopeful and confident that her birth and Europe’s rebirth have aligned and that we will rally, unify and elevate this continent to a stronger and more sovereign Europe.”

Her words got me thinking - how much safer and resilient would our world be if it was governed by women?

The world has become increasingly dangerous with global conflicts on the rise. All of them - Israel, Gaza, Ukraine, Russia, Syria, and Sudan - are being waged by men. Across the world, a tiny fraction, 13 out of 193 (6.7%) of countries have leaders that are women.

Would things be different if the majority of countries were led by women?

Former U.S President, Barack Obama thinks they would. “There would be less war, kids would be better taken care of, and there would be a general improvement in living standards and outcomes,” he said in 2019.

Ex-head of the United Nations, Kofi Annan said in 2006: “No policy is more important in preventing conflict” than empowering women.

Women leaders have shown their ability to be ruthless. UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, the ‘Iron Lady’, led her country through the Falkland’s War. India’s prime minister Indira Gandhi declared a state of emergency in 1975 and led a crackdown on civil rights, opponents and the media.

But there have been so few women leaders that it is hard to generalise. However, recent times have seem some stand-out female leaders that would suggest more women in charge would play the leadership role much differently than their male colleagues.

Angela Merkel

In 2015, German Chancellor Merkel called on Europe to show more solidarity when her country opened its doors to tens of thousands of refugees from Syria and Iraq. Her selfies with refugees went viral, setting the moral compass for Europe, and garnered support throughout Germany, including from political and business leaders.

Jacinta Ardern

Prime minister of New Zealand from 2017 to 2023 and the first to give birth while in office, Ardern’s tenure covered a number of crises including a devastating volcanic eruption, the Christchurch terrorist attack on a Muslim community, and the covid pandemic.

Her leadership was noted for her individual flair in responding to these challenges. The state address on the pandemic was delivered in casual clothes from her new baby’s nursery. The approach was deliberate - to inspire a state of calm in a crisis - and it worked.

After the terror attack in Christchurch that led to the deaths and injuries of more than 100 people, she gave an emotional speech at the memorial service and called for a ban on all military assault weapons - legislation that was passed in less than 10 days.

Her inauguration was memorable for her aspiration that her leadership’s legacy would be kindness. “Do not lose your sense of expectation,” Ardern said, “your expectation that political leaders do better, your expectation that people keep showing up, your expectation that you can create change if you organise and collaborate and work together. The moment we lose expectation is when hope dies. Do not lose your expectations.”

Anne Hidalgo

Hidalgo has been Mayor of Paris since 2014- the first woman to hold that office. She has transformed Paris as she determined to lead in the fight against climate change and ecosystem collapse.

Her policies include the construction of hundreds of miles of bike lanes; the exclusion of cars from the banks of the Seine; banning traffic in certain areas on Sundays and holidays; a massive clean up of the Seine to make it safe for swimming by 2025, incorporating 15- minute city concepts into urban planning; the planting of hundreds of thousands of trees by the end of 2026; and proposals to transform the Champs Elysées. Her influence has provided a template for other European cities.

But what does the evidence say about the impact of women leaders in politics and public life? A 2022 report by researchers at King’s College London analysed over 500 studies on the impacts of woman leaders in politics and public life, and confirmed that when women are able to exercise political leadership, there are gains not just for women and girls but for all of society. The main findings include:

• Women policy-makers prioritise issues that benefit the most vulnerable in society such as healthcare, welfare and education. As such, more women leaders seem to make for more equal and caring societies
• Women may be more likely to focus on these issues because they have greater experience of deprivation, and because they are often responsible for caring for others
• On average, women work harder than men to represent their constituencies, which is linked to a stronger sense among voters that government is responsive to their needs
• Increased representation of women in elected office is associated with counteracting corruption and focusing resources on the quality and consistency of public service delivery
• States where women held more political power are less likely to go to war and less likely to commit human rights abuses
• Women bring collaborative and inclusive leadership styles into political environments that are often characterised by division and one-upmanship.

Right now, there is an urgency to find leaders who lead differently. The focus on economic growth above all else, the capitalistic market-driven competition of one state against another has exacerbated burgeoning global conflicts, widening inequality, climate breakdown and ecosystem collapse.

The associated problems of chronic disease, addiction, poverty and a global pandemic of mental illness are all offshoots of that.

What we need are leaders who lead not for personal gain, but for solutions that prioritise community resilience, equity, and the health and wellbeing of both people and the unfathomably wonderful planet that we are here to protect.