Female Leaders must advance the cause of all oppressed women

Last Saturday, November 2, the opposition Conservative Party which has ruled Britain for the last 14 years before its crushing defeat in the general elections in July, announced that Kemi Badenoch has been elected as its new leader. The election is seen as a desperate attempt by the party, long associated with Britain’s ruling class and white privilege, to restore its disgraced and tattered image.

Ms. Badenoch, full name Olukemi Olufunto Adegoke Badenoch, (taking the surname of her husband Hamish Badenoch), was born in Nigeria to a relatively well-off Nigerian family but grew up in Britain. She was elected after the Conservatives were humiliated in the general elections. In so doing, she became the first woman to be elected leader of a major British political party and will become Leader of the Opposition in Parliament. By this election, the Conservatives have at least outshone the British Labour party which has traditionally been supported by black people in the UK.

The election of Ms. Badenoch also has international implications for she leads the Opposition in one of the leading industrial countries, a former major colonial power and a member of both the elite G 7 club as well as the NATO military alliance. Additionally, today, November 5, voters in the USA are faced with the choice of electing that country’s first-ever female President, who is also significantly black. If successful, it will be an historic achievement.

It is easy to read into these developments, signals, perpetuated by male chauvinists, that “women are ruling the world”. The reality is far from this. Of the 193 member-states of the United Nations, only 21 per cent have female Prime Ministers and among the world’s elected Parliamentarians, just over a quarter (26 per cent) are women.

In several cases where there are female Heads of State these are relics of the past; non-elected members of the so-called royalty as still exist in Europe. It was not until 1960 when a breakthrough was made in Sri Lanka when the broadly progressive Sirimavo Bandaranaike became the world’s first Prime Minister, elected by the people of Sri Lanka.

Though there have been a few progressive female Heads of State or Government since then, notably Indira Gandhi of India, and currently Mia Mottley of Barbados, it is important to take account of the policies and track records of female leaders, even as we welcome breakthroughs for women in politics. Indeed, there are some female leaders who have been anti-people in their policies and who have done little to advance the cause of women. One of Badenoch’s predecessors, ‘the Iron Lady’ Margaret Thatcher of the UK, is among them, and in the Caribbean Dame Eugenia Charles in Dominica and Kamla Persaud Bissessar in Trinidad and Tobago.

So, although we have welcomed the presence of more and more women in Parliaments and Cabinets in the Caribbean their impact has yet to match their numbers. While broadly we should continue to support a greater presence of women and indigenous people in leadership positions, we must also continue to press on them to advance, fight for, and mobilize support for policies which advance the daily lives of women and oppressed people worldwide.