~a column by Colleen O’Brien
“A great leader takes people where they don’t necessarily want to go, but ought to be.” ~Rosalynn Carter
Women started officially fighting for the vote in the U.S. in July of 1848 when they held the first Women’s Rights Convention in Seneca Falls, New York.
It took 72 years to convince the country’s power (men) to amend the Constitution for the 19th time and call it “Women’s Suffrage.” This happened in 1920, a mere 100 years ago.
Over the years of my reading about the women’s movement in America, I discovered these founding women – Lucretia Mott, Mary M’Clintock, Martha Coffin Wright, Jane Hunt and Elizabeth Cady Stanton – to be more and more impressive.
Their strength in the face of ridicule and imprisonment for protesting for their rights struck me as deeply courageous. They were marching at a time when women’s property became their husband’s when they married. Whatever abuse they suffered in the marriage to cause them to want to leave, leaving was not an easy thing to do – they could not take what they brought into the union, including the children that were born of the union. Their rights were miniscule when in fact could any rights be more important?
I began to wonder how much, in their secret hearts, they wanted to be the leaders of the country instead of men.
In supporting their Declaration of Sentiments that was based on the U.S. Constitution’s Declaration of Independence, Stanton, the main architect of the Sentiments, wrote and spoke for decades during the fight to be an equal citizen. In wondering why women didn’t have the right to vote, she slyly wrote that if it were a right given to “the most ignorant and degraded men,” surely women could be entrusted with the duty.
This brings me to the present Time of Coronavirus, when the countries with the healthiest people, the most well-run healthcare programs and the lowest case count and death count from the virus are headed by women.
This is not a surprise, for women are by nature and in all cultures the caretakers. As in, taking care of the business of life – not necessarily the business of commerce, although they can do this, too. Most of the cultures of the world are male-based and historically uppity – easily offended and therefore warlike, readier to hit than to discuss, too seldom in a mood to console.
As soon as the coronavirus hit, leaders around the world, if they had any leadership in them, called on the scientists for facts of the virus and on women for how to deal with it. It was the women leaders who would get it together.
The leaders and the countries that have done this:
- Tsai Ing-wen, Taiwan, 6 COVID-19 deaths
- Jacinda Ardern, New Zealand, 4 deaths
- Katrin Jacobsdottir, Iceland, 8 deaths
- Sanna Marin, Finland, 49 deaths
- Erna Solberg, Norway, 98 deaths
- Mette Frederiksen, Denmark, 20 deaths
- Angela Merkel, Germany, 9,000 deaths *
Many other countries’ leaders are still haphazardly figuring things out, blundering through, unable to get supplies, incapable of figuring what to do that won’t hurt their self-esteem.
Their leaders are:
- Donald Trump, USA, 147,000 COVID-19 deaths
- Jair Bolsonaro, Brazil, 84,000 deaths
- Narendra Modi, India, 36,000 deaths
- Vladimir Putin, Russia, 13,000 deaths *
I don’t know about you, but looking at the stats above, I figure that if we’d elected a female four years ago, we’d be in the top group, not #1 in the bottom.
*all of the above: European Centre for Disease Control
