I was having major coding issues with my last version of this post and I ended up deleting it and retyping it. My apologies to anyone who got lost along the way.

This week’s In My Opinion video meme asked you to answer one or all of the following questions:

1. How would a woman president be different from a man?

2. If you only had one more year to live, what would you change about your life?

3. How do you think you’ll be different when you attend your 20-year high school reunion? OR, if you’re past that point, like me, compare who you are now to the person you were back in high school. How have you changed?

And here’s my super dorky response:

Vodpod videos no longer available.
more about “In My Opinion: Gender and Politics on…“, posted with vodpod

Did you play along? Don’t forget to Link Up at Write From Karen!

– Edit –

This is just a written version of what I (hopefully eloquently) expressed in the video. If for any reason you can’t see the above video, don’t feel like watching it, or watched it but didn’t really understand me, want more information, etc. The gist of my opinion is that there are a lot of gender stereotypes that I think would come into play with a female president – both in how other people would perceive her, respond to her, etc. AND what her potential strengths and pitfalls could be, taking into account that some gender stereotypes, though not universally true are sometimes mostly true to a large extent. Women are typically perceived as better communicators and better judges of character. I think if this were the case with said female president, that she’d potentially be very good at communicating both with America and foreign countries, she might pick up on feelings of animosity quicker than a male would and be better suited to diplomacy.

However, many women are also known for caring about how others feel about them more so than most males. This could be a weakness – would the woman be emotionally up to the task of being the voice of her people? When shit hits the fan, will they be okay with saying, “I don’t care if you like me, this is what needs to be done?” In my marriage and previous leadership positions I have personally found that I don’t like being that person – I like having that one last person to turn to and say, “What now?” And while not all women will have this same problem (indeed maybe mothers of teenagers have long since gotten used to it) it should be taken into consideration I think by all females wishing to enter into politics, because let’s face it, we spend an awful lot of time disliking the people in power at some point or another and that person in power needs to be able to deal with that, not take it too personally and focus on getting the job done.

So am I saying that a female as a president would be a bad thing? No. People are different, gender aside and I think there are probably plenty of females that would be as good as their male counterparts if not better – but those are the areas I think would be most up to debate insofar as what would be different about a female as president, her potential strengths and weaknesses, and why. Which was the question. 😉

So what do you think? Agree? Disagree? I’d love it if you’d join me in the comments section to discuss!