To the staff and students at Elmwood School for Girls, and to my new friends at McGill Women in Leadership
INTRODUCTION
The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in Wuhan, China, and its worldwide spread throughout 2020 and into 2021, has taken the world and flipped it upside down. In addition to worldwide climate change, rapid advancement of technologies, and the simultaneous conflicts of overpopulation and aging population, COVID-19 is pushing us into a new era of global leadership and it looks like it might finally be a female-friendly one.
Since the beginning of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, it has become apparent female-led countries have fared better in handling the pandemic. The effectiveness of Denmark, Finland, Germany, Iceland, Norway, Taiwan, and New Zealandall nations with female heads of stateare cited by media outlets as supporting evidence that women are indeed capable and powerful leaders. The BBC, for example, acknowledged Jacinda Ardens leadership in New Zealand as a model response of empathy, clarity and trust in science, and The Guardian noted Angela Merkels proactive and coordinated policy response which left Germany far better off than its European neighbors in terms of COVID-19 cases and deaths. Some even claim they are perhaps even better than their male counterparts. This positive and celebratory commentary, however, is certainly a new phenomenon for female politicians.
Given that women only make up about 10 percent of national leaders, they are still so unusual that they tend to stand out and draw a lot of scrutiny. The fact that women are finally starting to be seen as important and capable leaders is a great sign of progress, and I believe it points toward a new age of inclusivity for female leaders. I have great hope the women and girls of the future will be able to look at the world around them and think, I can be prime minister, too.
When I was younger, I wanted to be prime minister. I may also have wanted to be a ballerina, an astronaut, and a novelist, but the point is I believed I could do any of those things easily if I put my mind to it. As a child, I was surrounded by positive female and male role models who encouraged these beliefs. In particular, during my high school years at Elmwood School for Girls I was surrounded by people who encouraged my peers and I to pursue our career goals and passions. I never thought I was less competent than my male counterparts or felt I wasnt suitable for a position because of my gender. I feel grateful for the confidence my experience at Elmwood has instilled, as it has helped dispel some of the less encouraging narratives that I have become increasingly exposed to throughout my working and university experiences.
As I started to venture out of those sheltered walls of my home and of my school, however, I started to see the world in a slightly different way; you could say my rose-tinted glasses were slipping off. As a student studying political science, it has become my job to stay informed about the things going on outside my own personal bubble and in the world around me. Inevitably, this has meant that I have tuned in to some of the less encouraging and pessimistic stories out there. The conversations I see and hear in the classroom, on social media, and on the news are still wrought with misogynistic undertones, ones which see feminine traits as less desirable but also see women without feminine traits as less desirablea double-edged sword, so to speak. I think it is exactly this kind of environment that discourages women from pursuing leadership positions. These double standards and double binds certainly hold women back when it comes to finding success in politics. No wonder women seem to be so unelectable!
Female politicians of the past and present have endured many struggles when it comes to trying for, and being in, political leadership positions, and our society still seems to be uncomfortable with the idea of women being in positions of power. All we have to do is turn to statistics to see it. UN Women estimates that globally men represent 77 percent of parliamentarians, 82 percent of government ministers, 93 percent of heads of government, and 94 percent of heads of state. Today, one can name all of the current female country leaders in less than thirty seconds; currently, only nineteen out of 193 countries have a female head of state or government. We can also turn and look at the treatment of female leaders in the media and in the press. Harsh criticisms surrounding womens appearance, voice, personality, values, capability, and fulfillment as wives and mothers run rampant and to a much greater extent than experienced by males. After seeing these prejudices and biases against women unfold around me, my childhood dream of becoming prime minister has certainly become less appetizing.
That being said, while I have become aware of all of the double binds and double standards and daunting challenges women in politics are facing, I believe it is possible to find a way to push back on these prejudices and look toward creating space for a brighter future for female leaders. Positive changes are already well on their way, and in 2020 we are at a place women could have only dreamed about even just twenty years ago. We are seeing a greater willingness of society to have a more open, honest and vulnerable conversation about these struggles, and we are starting to see society actively try and change the way we think about and treat women in politics through the means of education, ads, social media, female role models, and allies. The success and support for the female pandemic power players, like Jacinda Arden and Angela Merkel mentioned earlier, certainly point to this.
So, while the first part of my book will walk through double binds, double standards, and challenges that act as a barrier to women in their political careers, the second part of my book will show how I see things changing for the better, and the third part will walk through the steps we can take as a society to continue this progress. Through this debunking of the close-minded and exclusive concepts of gender and leadership that have been reinforced for centuries, I believe we will be able to overcome this paradox still hindering female leaders. I have confidence that women of the future will be electable, as long as we continue to address and work on changing our beliefs and attitudes about gender and leadership through these conversations.
In writing this book I hope I can be part of this conversation and, through my own personal research, conversations, and self-reflections, contribute to this critical debunking process. I also hope this book will provide a vision for a way forward in creating a space for a female-led future. While I want this book to encourage you to look inwards, to recognize your subconscious preconceptions and biases, to think about where you come from and why you think the way you do (even if it is a little uncomfortable), I also want you to look outward and look to one another to talk, listen, learn, support, and act on this issue.
So, if you are an aspiring female leader, know an aspiring female leader, or just want to see women being given an equal chance to be one for a change, then this book is for you. Read it in order or out of order, read it all at once or flip through it when you have a break, take notes, pass it around to friends, share its stories and its message, and share what you think about them with others. Get the conversation going. It is by doing this that women can finally be seen as electable.
