We need our female political chiefs to be good leaders

The Notebook

Recently I found myself doing a little research in the area of women in leadership. I come to this topic as someone who has been fortunate to know and experience some extraordinary women leaders in my own life and particularly in ministry. Any group, any society, any church which denies an equal role for women leaders is surely denying itself of an opportunity to reach its full potential.

Regarding the qualities of women in leadership, many commentators seem to agree with the conclusions of a 2005 Caliper study which took a full year to complete. Caliper articulates four unique qualities of women leaders:

1. Women leaders are more persuasive than their male counterparts.
2. When feeling the sting of rejection, women leaders learn from adversity and carry on with an “I’ll show you” attitude.
3. Women leaders demonstrate an inclusive, team-building leadership style of problem-solving and decision-making.
4. Women leaders are more likely to ignore rules and take risks.

While reflecting on those characteristics, I inevitably began to think about some of the best known women political leaders in the world and how Caliper’s characteristics were reflected in how they lead. I thought of women like Jacinda Arden, the Prime Minister of New Zealand who showed outstanding and decisive leadership in the wake of the attacks on the Muslim community in her country. Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, the first female head of government in the continent of Africa was president of Liberia from 2006 to 2018 and was consistently rated one of the top five leaders in the world. Angela Merkel has in effect, become the most prominent leader in the western world.

Underwhelmed

At the risk of upsetting some of the female readers of this column, I find myself underwhelmed by many of the women political leaders closer to home particularly in relation to Northern Ireland.

The front seats in St Anne’s Cathedral on the day of Lyra McKee’s funeral were occupied by all the main players in Northern Ireland politics. The majority of them are women, Prime Minister Theresa May, DUP’s Arlene Foster, Sinn Féin’s Mary Lou McDonald and Michelle O’Neill, British Secretary of State Karen Bradley.

As I looked at that line-up, sadly I found little evidence of the unique leadership characteristics listed above. All of these women are experienced politicians and I’m sure they have shattered their fair share of glass ceilings to get to where they are today.

However being a good politician and being a good leader are two different things. Over Easter I met a priest friend who works in a rural parish in Northern Ireland. He articulated very well the frustration his parishioners feel about the political vacuum in Northern Ireland. Many of them are part of the middle ground of the nationalist community and they feel totally unrepresented by their politicians.

Assembly

There has been no functioning assembly for over two years and the MP’s who should be representing them don’t take their seats in the House of Commons.

As I write these lines the political parties are sitting down together for the first time in a few years. Hopefully, before they are published there might just be signs that Karen, Theresa, Arlene, Mary Lou and Michelle realise we need good leaders and not just astute politicians.

The Wisdom of a child:

A grandfather was walking through his yard when he heard his granddaughter repeating the alphabet in a tone of voice that sounded like prayer. He asked her what she was doing. The little girl explained: “I’m praying, but I can’t think of exactly the right words, so I’m just saying all the letters, and God will put them together for me because he knows what I’m thinking.”