Physiology vs Politics-Women Leaders in a Man's World

Physiology vs Politics – Women Leaders in a Man’s World
The Case of Margaret Thatcher

Women leaders have multiple demands from patriarchy and societal expectations that they bring a different brand of leadership to the table. The perceived privilege of leadership is like the proverbial albatross around their necks. It is assumed that once women have broken the glass ceiling and reached what is in most cases a man’s position; she will have a bias towards women’s issues and frame her problem-solving and decision-making in their interests. This is not always true and without doing an in-depth interrogation of women leadership and associated issues, I will state that the fact that an individual is female does not guarantee a feminist perspective in their leadership style.

This situation feeds into the emerging conversation in Liberia, the first African country to have an elected female president. While it is too soon to conclude that Mrs. Sirleaf focuses on Liberia’s problems in a gender-neutral stance; it is safe to say that her decision-making and policies are tainted by neo-liberal and paternalistic tendencies, influenced by the IFIs. There is a marked and unparallel dichotomy between these paradigms and feminism.

Dr. Vandana Shiva in her piece, Making Poverty History and the History of Poverty, a reaction to Jeffrey Sachs, The End of Poverty states:

The $50 billion of “aid” North to South is a tenth of $500 billion flow South to North as interest payments and other unjust mechanisms in the global economy imposed by World Bank, IMF. With privatization of essential services and an unfair globalisation imposed through W.T.O, the poor are being made poorer. Indian peasants are loosing $ 26 billion annually just in falling farm prices because of dumping and trade liberalization. As a result of unfair, unjust globalisation, which is leading to corporate, take over of food and water. More than $5 trillion will be transferred from poor people to rich countries just for food and water. The poor are financing the rich. If we are serious about ending poverty, we have to be serious about ending the unjust and violent systems for wealth creation which create poverty by robbing the poor of their resources, livelihoods and incomes. Jeffrey Sachs deliberately ignores this “taking”, and only addresses “giving”, which is a mere 0.1% of the “taking” by the North. Ending poverty is more a matter of taking less than giving an insignificant amount more. Making poverty history needs getting the history of poverty right And Sachs has got it completely wrong.¹

Liberia is on the globalization ‘train’, set in motion by Friedman, and has had visits from both Professor Sachs and World Bank’s Wolfowitz in the 2007. The country is also concluding the development of a Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper, the required commitment to do ‘extractive’ business with the IFIs and their financial cohorts in other international organizations. Considering that 85% of Liberia’s population lives below $1 dollar a day; and majority of the poor is women, our national development strategy appears far from feminist and pro-poor.

This trend makes interesting space for the feminist development practitioner to employ voyeuristic skills over the next year-watching where a woman leader without feminist grounding leads us. The opportunity to influence this situation exists, unlike the case of Great Britain’s Margaret Thatcher, whose leadership is more akin to patriarchal and racist glory. This case study focuses on her leadership style, her role as a leader in a man’s world and its impact on her country’s development.

To be continued

continue......

KR...The fact that women in the man's world have not realized that they have the majority to elect women in higher offices will continue to make them to be second to men. The Liberian women as well as the Germans got it right when they elected Ma Ellen and the German Chancellor. Here in America, they are trying but their effort is being divided by either race, sex or other "ism". Women will have to continue to engage man on every issue of the day casue they are major part of the global village. They give birth to us and we listen when they talk. They will have to persevere and be courageous in competing at every level of the game. Women are a unifier if they want to be and can be a spoiler if they want.

The comtemporary world we live in can't survive without women. Women need to begin to step up to the plate and build coalition that will propel them to leadership. As a leader u set the agenda that the rest will adopt and use it as a tool for the conduct of business. Like embrace the positive development of Winnie Mandela and the rest of the progressive women who have and continue to challenge the status quo. I pay homage to a courageous woman in person of Ruth Sando Perry who in time of trouble engage warloads on a transitional team and as chairlady made sure that democratic election was held in Liberia. Ruth now reside in the great city of Columbus, Ohio with her children and relatives that she provided for. Thank God that these family members are taking care of Ruth in a special way that i admire. Ruth could have been home in Liberia but because of poor medical condition in our country she can't. She is a woman of valor unpretending and a today woman. Let keep the torch burning as we help empower our mothers.

bellah:
good points. i think the ability to put a woman in power rests not not in numbers bt a level of consciousness that shd not be specific to women. second, the positive attributes of women cannot be overestimated. their pivotal role in liberian history can also not be ignored. however, it is the ideal situation and not the reality, my brother.

Krazzy where the second part of the article??

it on my laptop Laughing

awaiting the second part and loving this th_mrgreen

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