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Alex Lo
SCMP Columnist
My Take
by Alex Lo
My Take
by Alex Lo

Imagine a world ruled by women

Males have had their chance from the start of time and I can’t wait to see a world – Hong Kong in particular – truly run by women; it can’t be worse than what we have now

Would the world be a better place if it were run by women? It’s hard to say as we have never really tried it. It turns out, despite widespread belief, that there never was any matriarchy in history or pre-history. It’s been a great and lovely myth. But sadly, male domination goes all the way back to Genesis.

However, we may be currently closest to doing a grand experiment with women leadership, in Hong Kong and elsewhere. After 173 years, the city will have its first woman deputy police chief, Winnie Chiu Wai-yin. As of now, we are enjoying something of a political honeymoon with our new and first woman chief executive, Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor. This year, Scotland Yard – the headquarters of the London Metropolitan Police – had its first woman commissioner, Cressida Dick. Before long, hopefully, we too will have a woman as police chief.

Yuriko Koike, the Tokyo governor, may well be the next – and first woman– Japanese prime minister, if polls are to be trusted. The West could have been led by women by now if the American electorate hadn’t gone crazy and voted for Donald Trump instead of Hillary Clinton. Angela Merkel has already been the most powerful leader in Europe for more than a decade. Then there is Theresa May, prime minister of Britain, and Christine Lagarde, head of the International Monetary Fund.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel (L) and British Prime Minister Theresa May (R) at the European Union leaders summit on June 22, 2017 in Brussels. Photo: AFP

That scenario would have been really something: a women-led West in a stand-off with traditional male autocrats from the East, an epic confrontation between so many of our deep-seated binary concepts. But the world is always full of surprises. As they say, cometh the hour, cometh the man. And in came Trump. It is not just that the US president is a misogynist, he and his supporters completely screwed up a great experiment in female global leadership.

But while I am all for a bit of female domination, I don’t want to romanticise it too much. South Korea, Brazil and Argentina all have had their first elected woman presidents in the past 10 years. Now, two (South Korea’s Park Geun-hye and Argentina’s Cristina Kirchner) are facing corruption charges, while Dilma Rousseff of Brazil was impeached and removed from office for manipulating the government budget.

So, I guess the jury on women being leaders is still out and will be so for a long time. But just out of curiosity, I can’t wait to see a world – and Hong Kong in particular – truly run by women. It can’t be worse than what we have now.

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