Judge women on their results and not on their gender
BACK in 1992, the President Barbie Doll was launched, complete with a gown for an inaugural ball and a red suit for her duties in the Oval Office. In the movie Barbie last year, there is a female president too. The role of President Barbie of Barbie Land was apparently modelled after Kamala Harris, US vice-president and the Democrats’ 2024 presidential candidate.
But reality has yet to mirror media – with the United States having failed, yet again, to elect a woman as president.
Still, it is not all doom and gloom. A record number of women were elected to federal and state office in the 2022 mid-term elections; they just haven’t reached the highest political post. The glass ceiling has been broken across the business sectors in America, and around the world. There is no shortage of women holding the highest office in countries small and large.
In Germany, Angela Merkel was chancellor from 2005 to 2021, the first woman to hold the office. Jacinda Ardern was prime minister of New Zealand not that long ago. The current leader of Italy is Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.
Closer to home, Megawati Sukarnoputri became Indonesia’s first female leader when she took office in 2001. The Philippines has had two women presidents in fact, namely, Corazon Aquino and Gloria Arroyo. Not to mention Taiwan and South Korea, who have also had female presidents.
However, once at the helm, gender often becomes a non-issue. In recent years, the United Kingdom’s Liz Truss was one of those who passed through the revolving door of the British premiership. What these premiers had in common more than anything else was their inability to deliver results and win over the electorate.
BT in your inbox
Start and end each day with the latest news stories and analyses delivered straight to your inbox.
But taking this gender point one step further, I came across the claim that women embody certain traits, including that of compromise and avoidance of confrontation.
Given America’s position as a global superpower, the hyper-masculinity of Donald Trump appealed more to the electorate, the argument went.
I’m not sure if this argument holds water. Compromise and skilful diplomacy are key for many roles, but perhaps not the rough-and-tumble of the US presidential elections.
As well, looking at the list of women leaders above, “poster girls for compromise” is not a characterisation that springs to mind immediately. Former leaders such as India’s Indira Gandhi or Pakistan’s Benazir Bhutto were as hard as nails.
Even veteran politican Nancy Pelosi who became the first female Speaker of the House of Representatives in the US probably brings less compromise to the job than the toughness to be able to whip the (430-plus) members into shape.
In Singapore, its biggest bank – and largest listed company – will soon be headed by a woman Tan Su Shan. Already OCBC has a female chief executive officer in Helen Wong. Blue-chip Singtel was previously lead by Chua Sock Koong.
And tellingly, the discussion around Tan’s appointment has focused less on her being DBS Group’s first female CEO and far more on the substantive issue of the direction in which she will take the bank.
Equally, just as Trump was booted out of office for, among other things, his handling of the Covid-19 pandemic, he will be judged on performance and outcomes during his second term in office. Hyper-masculinity will not save him, if he fails to deliver on his election promises.
Copyright SPH Media. All rights reserved.
