Gender equality should be more than having a female leader or just talking about it on International Women’s Day
- Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam tried to bring about changes to the city’s gender landscape, after making history as the first woman to take up the top job in 2017
- But policy and leadership matter more for any leader, regardless of gender. And the public cannot pin too much hope on the gender of a leader for equality either
Perhaps it was just an unhappy coincidence, but any hope for the world’s superpower to elect its first female president was dashed just ahead of International Women’s Day when US Senator Elizabeth Warren pulled out of the Democratic Party nomination race.
It will now be left to one of two men, Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders, to challenge incumbent President Donald Trump.
Warren’s decision to quit has triggered a new round of debate on the “electability” of a woman candidate – she was not even able to get as far as Hillary Clinton, who at least managed to reach the final stage as an official presidential candidate before Trump defeated her back in 2016.
Moving beyond the election itself, Warren’s case has raised an evergreen issue: how much does gender matter in winning public support?
Sociologists are fascinated by this subject, and as we celebrate International Women’s Day, it is worth contemplating as the gender issue makes headlines again.
Here in Hong Kong, there has been no shortage of news coverage of women making an impact in different walks of life, as the city marks March 8 as a special day.
Lam made history as the first woman to take up the top job in 2017. She took pride in it and had good reason to remind everyone about its significance back then.
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Readers may recall how she vowed to appoint more women to her cabinet. Well, she did try hard, but finally accepted the reality that the political atmosphere was so charged that few – men or women – were willing to join her team.
Hong Kong is widely considered as an open and inclusive society, with quite a few women playing key roles in both public services and the private sector.
However, it still cannot afford to be complacent. There are only two women – justice secretary Teresa Cheng Yeuk-wah and health minister Sophia Chan Siu-chee – in Lam’s core team of 16 principal officials. The Legislative Council is dominated by men, and the judiciary too, to mention but a few examples.
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This is the cruel reality: when it comes to public policymaking, as shown by the government’s problematic handling of the mass protests, and now the worst-ever public health crisis, Lam seems unable to garner much public sympathy – including from women.
Can gender automatically translate into popularity for politicians? It looks unlikely, or at least it requires more scientific study.
Realistically speaking, policy and leadership matter more for any leader, regardless of gender. And by the same token, neither can the public pin too much hope on the gender of a leader for greater equality.
Surely, this is worth contemplating beyond the ritual discussion on gender equality every year when the month of March arrives.
