But there is a third requisite, of course, and this is the perceived ability to win.The US media are already salivating over the prospects of a contest in 2008 that would guarantee a woman president. Royal, long-time partner of the Socialist Party leader, mother of his children, but also a former minister and an impressive politician in her own right, was bold enough to suggest she might entertain a bid for the French presidency next time around The catcalls resounded loud and long. With Merkel, the next few months should show.But woe betide a strong woman without a sturdy armour of patronage Ask Segolene Royal in France. Merkel was the prot? of Helmut Kohl, hailed as one of the great chancellors for presiding over the peaceful reunification of his country.Another ingredient, not unique to women, but often helpful, is the frequency with which their abilities or ambitions are underestimated. Both Merkel and Thatcher were initially merely tolerated as leaders of their respective parties because they were deemed harmless and the men judged that their time at the helm would be short-lived With Thatcher, the rest was history.
It was Conservative power-brokers, such as Airey Neave, who helped Margaret Thatcher to power. Today, outside the Scandinavian countries where women are now becoming a determining part of the establishment, that still means the patronage of men, commonly in political parties or - for some of those who emerged in the post-Communist states of Europe - the trade unions. Which is to say, by a similar combination of expertise, chance, ambition and patronage as most male politicians. The key, though, is patronage from within the existing establishment. Some are born to leadership; some achieve leadership; and some have it thrust upon them. Down the years, very many women, not only the crowned heads of Europe, owe their leadership positions to their birth. Indira Gandhi, Benazir Bhutto, Megawati Sukarnoputri of Indonesia and Gloria Arroyo of the Philippines come to mind, as well as Aung San Suu Kyi, prevented by the military dictatorship from becoming leader of Burma.Others owe their elevation to marriage and early widowhood: they had leadership thrust upon them, and in many cases proved more than equal to the task.
Eva Peron, Corazon Aquino and Sirimavo Bandaranaike, head the list. More unusual is Sonia Gandhi, who had leadership thrust upon her and chose to delegate it.Merkel is one of those women - rare in the past (Golda Meir comes to mind), but now increasing in number - who has risen to national leadership largely by her own efforts. She had reluctantly bowed to the pressure of the Christian Democrat hierarchy by marrying her long-time partner before being elected head of the party. But for her childlessness to become an election issue - as it did - reflected both the conservatism of German society, where mothers still tend not to work, and her own reluctance to hit back smartly in her own defence. This was one time, critical supporters agreed, when she heeded a feminine instinct she might have done better to ignore.Surveying those currently in national leadership positions around the world, a variation on the old axiom still holds as true of women as of men. We don't recognise the woman in her," several independent-minded women told me during the campaign.
