Girl power

In the 1915 utopian novel Herland by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, society has achieved the impossible: a world free of war, crime, violence, poverty, waste, hunger. Everyone is cared for and nobody wants for anything.

How has society achieved such an incredible featAccomplishment or achievement. , you might ask? Gilman's society is made up entirely of women, who reproduce asexuallyIn a way that happens without sex. and live isolated from men altogether.

You might raise an eyebrow. If the point of feminism is equality, shouldn't our utopiaThe word was coined by Thomas More (1478 - 1535) in his 1516 work of that name. In Greek, utopia means no place. consist of men and women leading equally, sharing their obligations and finding a way to co-exist peacefully?

Perhaps so. But for centuries, men have occupied practically every position of power, rarely ceding to women in any respect. It might be about time to flip the script.

When Ruth Bader GinsburgAn American lawyer who served on the US Supreme Court between 1993 and her death in 2020 at the age of 87. She is known for her fight for women's rights. was asked when there would be gender equality on the United States supreme court, she responded that it would be when all nine seats were filled by female justices. After all, she said, all nine justices have been men before without anybody questioning it.

We are far from making it a reality. As of January this year, there are only 26 countries where women serve as Heads of State of Government. In the highest positions of power, gender parityWhen men and women are represented equally. is not likely to be reached for another 130 years.¹

A study from the World Bank last year showed that only 14 countries across the world even offer full legal protection to women: Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Latvia, Luxembourg, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Germany and the Netherlands.² However, countries with female leaders are far more likely to score highly on the gender equality index.

And the problems do not end in politics. Women are concentrated at the bottom of the global value chain, disproportionatelyTo an extent that is too large or too small in comparison with something else. represented in the lowest-paid and most precarious jobs, with little access to social protections. Only 10% of Fortune 500 companies are led by women.

The UN estimates that if women were allowed the same opportunities in the labour market as men, a whopping $24 trillion, or 26%, could be added to global GDPShort for Gross Domestic Product, the measure of all the goods and services produced inside a country. per year.³

Moreover, what few studies we have suggest that we might be better off with female leaders. Recent Harvard research showed that women are rated more positively than men in 13 of the 19 key business competencies that comprise leadership effectiveness. Particularly strikingly, the research suggested that women are more equipped to lead in crisis situations.⁴

Women are seen by the general public as being more compassionate, more honest and more organised than men. Women also rank higher on innovation and creativity, but tend to be seen as less decisive.⁵

We are in the age of crisis, haunted by the spectreA criminal organisation with which Bond has often tangled. The initials stand for Special Executive for Counter-intelligence, Terrorism, Revenge and Extortion. of pandemics, economic collapse, climate change, war and dangerous new technology. If women can handle stress better than men, perhaps we should hand over the reins.

But, as others suggest, this age of crisis may also require total cooperation - between all of us. Lobbying for more representation of women in power is one thing, but suggesting that we do away with male leaders could do more harm than good.

Would the world be a better place?

Yes: Women are more likely to be compassionate, organised and innovative. These are the most important qualities in a leader. Moreover, when more women join leadership at any level, they perform better.

No: The world will only be a better place when we have total gender parity - i.e. when men and women rule together in completely equal positions of power. Your gender does not determine the strength of your ideas.

Or... Women tend to perform better as leaders now because they need to be truly exceptional to succeed due to the prejudices that they face. As it becomes easier for women to occupy these positions of power, they will be less likely to have this advantage.