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Shifting sands at sunrise

December 12, 2019   ·   0 Comments

By Constance Scrafield

The new Prime Minister of Finland, Sanna Marin, age 34, certainly has hit the world-wide headlines as the world’s youngest prime minister. She and her coalition government of five (count them) other parties, all led by women, four of whom are in their 30’s, have agreed to stick together in order to move forward with policies, including setting their goal to make Finland carbon neutral by 2035. 

This government is newly formed and has all the pitfalls before it to dodge. The country has been, as the world’s nations mainly are, run by older or old [white] men and Ms. Marin and her coalition will have them to answer to, as they forage ahead with their ambitious plans of social reforms, investment in infrastructure and protection of the environment.

Finland has been much wiser about including women in running the country; they were the first to give women the vote in 1906. For perspective, it was 1922 by the time women had the right to vote across Canada.

As a matter of course, governments formed in Finland have been 40% women, not as a remarkable situation. Not the big statement, “It’s 2015” that marked Justin Trudeau’s 50/50 male/ female cabinet that year, which had mixed results.

Lucinda Ardern, age 39, Prime Minister of New Zealand has an online, wild two-minute video of herself outlining the very impressive accomplishments of her government over the last two years. In rapid speed, she delivered a packed two-minute list of the benefits to the education, the environment, their health system, employment (192,000 new jobs), homelessness, new parents and that wasn’t all of it. Check it out.

Naturally, her response to the volcano eruption this week on White Island, where about 50 visiting tourists were walking and some of them killed,  was all it should have been by way of backing first responders and compassion.

After the mosque attack in New Zealand, Lucinda Ardern’s government actually banned all assault and automatic weapons. She didn’t bother to promise it and struggle with those who were against the banning – she just got on with it. Interestingly, she also declared that the name of the shooter should never be spoken again so as to take his notoriety from him. 

Gentlemen, the new age is dawning and the old guys, with their egos and their war mongering, need to go. Years ago, when Maggie Thatcher was elected Prime Minister of Great Britain, she had a “set of her own”, as the expression goes, and just like a man, she crushed the northern miners; she could hardly wait to send warships the Falkland Islands when Argentina invaded them. 

Neither New Zealand nor Finland are likely to enter into any of the pointless, modern conflicts from which this planet suffers at the moment, and the disgusting sabre-rattling globally will hopefully be reduced when Trump is finally disposed. That happy day, that could be the right time for a woman to be president of the United States.

I really believe that men believe women are too weak to lead, too soft to understand the masculine insistence that using up the earth and putting the needs of the planet and all that is on it, to one side is the only way to make money.

That consumption and the consequent acquisition of wealth are what matter most.

I think they believe women will work to reduce violence and war by doing away with the motives and the means for both. However, both are very profitable.

It is likely that arms manufacturers with connections to New Zealand will want to push back against Ms. Ardern’s decree against assault weapons. Certainly, the powerful gun lobbies here and in the USA are pressuring Trudeau to go easy on the subject. He talks about it but he doesn’t press ahead. Not like Lucinda Ardern, who said it, meant it and got it done.

With all due respect, men and women are wired differently and there is a fundamental reason for this: women bear children. We grow them inside our bodies; when we give birth, we land a whole new person onto terra firma and that is amazing and very important to who we are and what we want.

This is not about good or bad parenting; simply the inevitability of the difference between us and that difference probably makes women better leaders. 

Their inborn inclination to nurture will almost always set their priorities to improve the environment in which we live; to care about the individuals who are all members of society. To be more efficient and less “political” in running the government.

Sanna Marin and Lucinda Ardern are the first of what will be many. Even the worst of the old guys must die eventually, if they simply refuse to retire. The sun may soon rise on this planet to see more women in charge of more organizations. 

With any luck, more (young!) men will be working with them, shoulder to shoulder.

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