As of today, Chile now has their first female president. I heard this story yesterday on NPR as I was trying to get ready for work. What seriously bothered me was the fact that about five minutes before the Chile story, they were announcing the results of some new poll that asked Californians if we were "ready for a female President." It's absolutely ridiculous that we even need to ask this question. Let's look at the list of countries that have had female leaders:
Argentina
Bangladesh
Bolivia
Bulgaria
Burundi
Canada
Central African Republic
Chile
Dominica
Ecuador
France
Finland
Georgia
Germany
Guinea-Bissau
Guyana
Haiti
Iceland
India
Ireland
Isreal
Latvia
Liberia
Lithuania
Malta
Macedonia
Mongolia
Mozambique
Nicaragua
New Zealand
Norway
Pakistan
Panama
Peru
The Phillipines
Poland
Portugal
Rwanda
Sao Tome and Principe
Senegal
South Korea
Sri Lanka
Switzerland
Turkey
the Ukraine
The United Kingdom
Yugoslavia
47 countries. And that's not counting any countries that have been ruled by female monarchies. That's just a list of 47 countries that have elected or appointed female presidents or prime ministers. Now, there are 192 countries in the world which means that over one-fourth of the world has been lead by a woman at one point or another.
Do you see what I mean? Mongolia, Pakistan and Rwanda are more socially progressive than the United States. Part of China, one of the main Muslim countries in the world, and a nation that slaughtered millions of its own citizens -- all of them are more progressive than the good ol' US of A.
What is our problem? Who is it in this country that actually thinks we'd dissolve into anarchy with a female President? Don't those people realize that their children are taught by women and that their cities most likely have female city council members? This ridiculous Neanderthal notion that the US has to be run by men is a joke that a fair chunk of the rest of the world seems to realize is outdated. We need to get with the program.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
1 comment:
Partially I think it's because of media stories like this one that couch thing in such a way as to maintain the status quo. "Are we READY to have a female President?" The whole spin is how it's such a radical concept.
But moreso, I think it's a product of our ever-more-quickly-becoming outdated style of democracy where 51% takes 100% of the power. When winner-takes-all systems exist, candidates are squeezed into the least alientating and most middle-of-the-road figures.
Just like the "Kerry's the only one who can beat Bush" justification for his primary campaign, white christian married men with 2.4 kids seems to be all that we're daring enough to put up for election. Just look at the GOPs group of Presidential hopefuls in Tennessee this weekend!
I'd be interested to know, of the countries you listed, how many had proportional representation in the style of british parliament and how many had winner-take-all systems like ours.
Post a Comment