talkpolitics | World politics is "pregnant" =)

airiefairie.livejournal.com posting in

I know it is a cliche that you hear too often: women are transforming politics. But it is true. Especially in the recent years, when the ladies occupy more and more key positions of state. With the vigour that is inherent to them, they embark on various missions and defend various causes in solving the world's problems, relying on expertise, skills, tact and patience that help break many old stereotypes of the previously male dominated society which existed for centuries. "Women are influenced less by libido and testosterone, which gives us the opportunity to be more rational in taking decisions", the French minister of finance Christine Lagarde said recently. More and more voters choose to delegate governing to the presumably "tender" female hands. And though at the moment only about 10% of the world's leaders are women, the tendency is toward increasing that number. Women who have chosen politics are constantly proving that nothing could stop them while they climb up the ladder, make careers, occupy crucial positions, take decisions that affect their societies. A century ago, all that would have looked not just improbable, it would be out of question.

Not any more. A few decades ago, maybe no one would have supposed that the minister of defense of a large country would be at an advanced stage of pregnancy while in office. But this is already a fact. The soldiers of Spain were bewildered to see a young lady in her 8th month of pregnancy standing in front of them in 2008 to greet them in their military bases. The appointment of Carmen Chacón for minister of defense of Spain caused sharp criticism and concerns that she would be unable to combine her maternal duties with her official ones. They suspected that her baby would hinder her from visiting the troops who were deployed on missions overseas, or that she would be unable to attend important NATO meetings. But, to prove that they were all wrong and that her pregnancy could be no obstacle to her official duties, just a week after she was appointed minister of defense, Chacón arrived in Afghanistan with her big belly, where she met the Spanish troops. So she changed the long-standing prejudice that pregnant women are useless and ineffective. Chacón took her appointment as a sign of acknowledgement for the enormous contribution that women have in the Spanish military, and a real chance to improve the conditions that they work in (nearly 15 thousand out of the 80 thousand Spanish soldiers are women). Her female instincts instantly started working and she made sure that the military uniform of the women in the army were amended to fit their specific forms. It may sound like a little thing but I assure you it is not that insignificant.

That pregnancy is not Mission Impossible for the women who have started a political career was proven again by the former French minister of justice and current EMP Rachida Dati. She did not stop going to work till the very last day before her daughter Zohra was born in January 2009. Dati, who categorically refuses to reveal who the father of her baby is, chose to give life to her daughter during the New Year's holidays so she could be able to attend the first government meeting after the holidays. And she did it! She stunned the world (and caused a lot of controversy) when she appeared at the government meeting just 5 days after giving birth through caesarean section. She appeared fresh, happy, smiling, in perfect form and wearing high heels. So why did Rachida Dati decide to act like a Supermom and she went to work straight away from the birth clinic? Actually the explanation is in a simple detail about the French legislation - it appears the ministers and high ranking officials of the country and people on elected positions do not have a right to a maternity leave - a fact that no one had bothered to address for years, because they never had to. In the modern history of the country only three female ministers had become mothers while being in the government. Dati and her baby quickly prompted the government and the MPs to start crafting some changes in the legislation so that they could allow mothers who occupy high positions of state to enjoy some time with their infants and give them the attention they deserve, just like any other mother.

And Dati is not the only woman in politics who has been doing her job well without necessarily having a strong male support beside her. A single mother came to lead Finland in 2000 when she became the first lady to take the reigns of the country. Tarja Halonen managed to break a number of stereotypes when she decided to run for president while she was single, and with a child. And she won the hearts of her compatriots and they elected her president! Only then, six months after she was sworn in, she decided to marry her long-time friend Pentti Arajärvi. Maybe because of this audacity of hers, Tarja is still so loved by her nation and she even features in the top 5 on a TV chart about the greatest Finns of all times.

The Italian EMP Licia Ronzulli appeared on all front pages across Europe when she went to the tribune of the European parliament, holding her 1 month old daughter in her bosom. She even actively participated in the debate for extending the maternity leave in the EU countries, and her holding the baby in her arms while speaking had a convincing effect on the EMPs and they eventually accepted the proposal.

A year or so ago the Danish EMP Hanne Dahl also appeared in the EU parliament with her child. So the young EMPs have really changed the outdated notions about women in politics.

And what about our very own prime minister, Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir. She completely overturned the old ultra-conservative concepts that people of state (I am not even using "statesmen" any more) are not supposed to publicly demonstrate their sexual orientation. She has never tried to hide the fact that she lives with her long-time girlfriend, and in June last year they finally married. Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir and Jónína Leósdóttir were one of the first same-sex couples to marry as soon as the Alþingi (Iceland's parliament) adopted a law to allow same-sex marriage. For the time being Jóhanna remains the only leader of a country in the world who is openly gay.

In Argentina, where same-sex relationships are generally frowned upon, no one is even thinking of objecting to a strange political practice that took place recently. Two spouses swapped places and one of them transferred his power to the other. The current leader of the country Cristina Kirchner "inherited" the presidency from her husband Néstor Kirchner who had served for one term before that. The family swapped places for 4 years. Of course this was not done the way of the monarchies - Cristina was duly elected by a direct vote of the people on a fairly open, regular presidential election. Néstor decided not to run for a second term and he threw his support behind his wife, and she won. Well, probably the family political model will not last too long, but what it did was to completely remove the notion that one politician in the family is more than enough. =)

The list could go on and on. Some names worth mentioning are Queen Rania of Jordan, probably the hottest politician in the world, who is very active in various domains, from charity to global education, community empowerment, disaster relief, cross-cultural dialogue, microfinance, etc; Dilma Rousseff, the new president of Brazil, one of the most vibrant emerging economies in the world, who took over from her mentor Lula da Silva; Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, the president of previously war-torn Liberia; Jadranka Kosor, former prime minister of Croatia; Pratibha Patil, the president of India, the largest democracy in the world; Laura Chinchilla, the first female president of Costa Rica; Máire McAleese, the president of Ireland; Catherine Ashton, the foreign minister of the European Union; and of course Angela Merkel, the iron chancellor of Europe's powerhouse Germany.

So I could say that one by one, the old taboos in politics are falling down, to a large extent thanks to the new generation of ladies involved in politics. In a sense they have put this previously entirely male occupation a bit closer down to earth, and they promise to keep transforming it in a positive way.