FEMINIZING WORLD POWER: A NEW CONSTELLATION OF WOMEN IN POLITICS?

Abstract

It is an interesting time in world politics. Neoliberal globalization seems on back foot especially after an unexpected Brexit. Europe faces prospect of realigning itself after UK vote to leave EU. UK suffering from an immediate economic effect of Brexit has to renegotiate its international relations and trading agreements. EU faces what seem insuperable problems: its Mediterranean economies are in bad shape and EU is still recovering from Great Recession of 2007-8. Meanwhile Middle East is a boiling cauldron of regional, religious and ethnic conflicts involving a new round of US-Russia politics and strategic action over Assad's regime and larger regional bloc conflicts. Syrian civil war is in its seventh year and refugees from Syrian have made up one of largest migration crises mainly from displaced refugees in Middle East since WWII with strong eco- nomic, social and security consequences for EU. ISIL continues to grow and extend its influence in Levant. Militant Islam with all its splinter groups continues to conduct its suicide and car bombing attacks on European civil society. There are also new crises brewing in South China Seas with China's imperial ambitions as well as international difficulties with so-called rogue states like Korea. likelihood of nuclear proliferation is probably greater at this point historically than any time since end of WWII.At same time specter of Donald Trump grows larger as US November elections approach and rhetoric that spills forth from him on issues of NATO, Russia, and China scare most mainstream foreign policy specialists. His threatened withdrawal of major partnerships and international treaties including recent Paris environmental agreement poses a real cause for alarm.The world leadership problems and issues confronting heads of state are probably more complex and intrinsically more difficult than at any time in past. At same time it appears that emergence of women leaders currently in power is highest it has ever been with election or appointment of some twenty-two female heads of state and leaders in 2015.1 Caroline Howard and Michael K. Ozanian (2012) named The 100 Most Powerful beginning with Angela Merkel, Hillary Clinton, Dilma Rousseff, Melinda Gates, Jill Abramson, Sonia Ghandi, Michelle Obama, Christine Lagarde, Janet Napolitano, and Sheryl Sandberg under following description:There's official power, which comes in form of a head of state or CEO, and then there's transformational force of impact, stemming from magnitude of reach and influence. Here are entrepreneurs and early adapters, celebrity role models, activist billionaires and philanthropists who are healing world - all ranked by dollars, media presence and impact.Yet as Swanee Hunt (2007), in an article Let Rule in Foreign Affairs, reminds us, progress toward leadership and equal power for women has not been easy or straightforward:Women have made significant strides in most societies over last century, but trend line has not been straight. In recent interviews with hundreds of female leaders in over 30 countries, I have discovered that where women have taken leadership roles, it has been as social reformers and entrepreneurs, not as politicians or government officials. This is unfortunate, because world needs women's perspectives and particular talents in top positions.She refers to Francis Fukuyama's 1998 article in Foreign Affairs Women and Evolution of World Politics that speculates women's political leadership would bring about a more cooperative and less conflict-prone world of World Politics. She concludes that Fukuyama's promise has yet to be fulfilled. Hunt (2007) suggests that shift of women from civil society into government will help to develop a healthier political culture and highlights the advantages women have over men's brawny style of governance, whether because of biology, social roles, or a cascading combination of two. …