Did I miss something? Aren't three strong women about to...

...run three of our greatest democracies? 

Perhaps you've read that the executive chairman of a huge advertising agency,

one Kevin Roberts of Saatchi and Saatchi, got fired this week for suggesting that the gender debate is over. He claimed - and this is what really riled - that women are more concerned with a circular rise to happiness than a vertical ascent to greatness. A posse of women raced to repudiate him, led by an aptly named consultant, Cindy Gallop. 

But when it comes to politics, this newly unemployed ad man may be right. How so? Because I've yet to see one article celebrating the fact that two great democracies - Germany and the UK - have female leaders and a third, America, is about to elect one. That is, unless an unhinged male sociopath triggers an extinction level event by beating her to the door of the White House (or, as he may rename it, the 'let's-keep-it White House'.)

Have we become blase about women reaching the top in politics? Hillary bangs on about breaking the glass ceiling but maybe that's an American obsession. In Europe, not so much. 

So far no commentator has made anything of the fact that Angela Merkel and Theresa May are now 'women on top' and Hillary Clinton may complete the trifecta. Maybe that's because it's been thirty-seven years since Margaret Thatcher set up shop in 10 Downing Street. 

Surely the elevation of women to these positions is a good thing? Research has shown that, in general, women: display greater emotional intelligence than men; have a greater ability to relate to the feelings of others; work more collaboratively than men and, mostly, don't get caught up in aggressive posturing. That is not to say - as many husbands, boyfriends, and bosses will attest - that they won't fight back when they sense gender-based injustice. 

What intrigues me about this social evolution is this: how will the feminine mystique respond to existential threats? Since the Stone Age, men have reached for a club when their lives, families, civilizations are threatened - and centuries of bloodshed have been the result. Will women reach for the red telephone instead? If they do, we may be ushering in a better world. 

Brian Clewly Johnson

Amagansett, NY

August 2016