INTERNATIONAL: Women Advance As Political Leaders

On November 1, 2010, Dilma Rosseau was elected President of Brazil. The daughter of a Bulgarian immigrant, she was a revolutionary guerilla in the 1970's who was imprisoned for three years and tortured for 22 days with electric shock, but most importantly, today, she's a female leader, one of several political women selected recently to guide Latin American nations.

Michele Bachelet was President of Chile from 2004-2010. The pediatrician and epidemiologist was fluent in five languages, with a popularity rating was 84% when she left office. Next door, in Argentina, the President since 2006 has been Cristina Fernandez - initially compared to Eva Peron, hair in a bun, waving her fist in the air. This trio of women in the same geographical area represent arguably the most prosperous and developed nations of South America, comprising 60% of that continent's area and 60% of that continent's population. A huge chunk of the hemisphere has or recently had a First Lady that was or is the First Person.

What about the rest of the world? Internationally, there's 27 women in leadership positions:

Angela Merkel - Chancellor of Germany.
Antonella Mularoni - Leader of the Government of San Marino.
Borjana Kristo - President of the Bosnia and Herzegovina
Cristina Fernandez - President of Argentina
Dalia Grybauskaite - President of Lithuania.
Dilma Rosseau - President of Brazil
Doris Leuthard - President of the Swiss Conferation.
Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf - President of Liberia.
Iveta Radicova - Prime Minister of Slovakia.
Jadrandra Kosor - Prime Minister of Croatia.
Johanna Siguroadottir, Prime Minister of Iceland.
Julia Gillard - Prime Minister of Australia.
Kamla Persad Bissessar - Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago.
Laura Chinchilla - President of Costa Rica.
Louise Lale-Tack - Governor-General of Antigua and Barbuda
Mari Kiviniemi - Prime Minister of Finland.
Mary McAleese - Prime Minister of Ireland.
Michele Bachelet - President of Chile
Paula Cox - Premier of Bermuda.
Pearlette Louisy - Governor-General of St. Lucia
Portia Simpson-Miller - Prime Minister of Jamaica.
Pratibha Patil - President of India.
Dr. Quentin Bryce - Governor-General of Australia.
Roza Otunbyeva - President of Kyrgyzstan.
Sarah Wescott-WIlliams - Prime Minister of St. Maarten.
Sheikh Hasina Wajed - President of Bangladesh.
Tarja Halonen - President of Finland.

Admittedly, not all the women were democratically elected. The three "Governor Generals", for example, were each appointed to be their Commonwealth nation's perfunctory representative to the monarch of the United Kingdom, a blithely powerless task. Conversely, Ms. Otunbyeva assumed her Kyrgyzstan title via violent overthrow (although, in all fairness, she's favored to win an upcoming election.)

Despite that quibble, today's quantity of female leadership is startlingly new. No woman was elected head of a nation until 1980 - that's when Vigdis Finnbogadottir - Director of the Rekjayvik Theater - was voted President of Iceland. She served in that capacity for 16 years by achieving reelection three times - similar to Franklin D. Roosevelt, except that twice she ran unopposed, and the third time she received 95% of the votes.

Vigdis - divorced single mother of an adopted daughter - crashed through the gender wall just 30 years ago. Her success released a geyser of women politicos: fIfty-six additional females have been voted into a top position since 1980. Many nations - Iceland, Argentina, India, Finland, The Philippines - have elected more than one female leader. Ireland is presently enjoying its second female President in a row. and when they elected Mary MacAleese, the four top finishers were all female, with the lone male finishing last.

The vast majority of the 27 women I listed above are their nation's first female leaders, with 50% gained their victories in the last two years. The pace of women's political power is accelerating. All around the world, women are moving into political leadership.

Will this transform the world? Is female leadership identical to male leadership, with the same priorities, or are there female goals that will impact Education, Health, Economics, Culture, Military, Religion, Love, Sex, and the Family, transmuting them into unanticipated forms? What will happen if global female power ever equals male power? Will it change our lives for better or for worse or will the "happiness index" remain the same? If the long-established dominant rule of the patriarchy actually groans to an end, what will a shared XY-XX civilization look like?