It’s great to see a third female Tory PM . . .
At the UK Conservative party conference in Birmingham last week, I was struggling to get to a meeting in a room I couldn’t find, when a woman suddenly stopped me and thrust a small round badge in my hand.
On it was printed: “3-0”, with the number 3 in blue and the 0 in red.
I stared at it cluelessly. It was only when I noticed she was standing in front of a Conservative Women’s Organisation stall that it dawned. The Conservatives, whose political colour is blue, have had three female prime ministers — Margaret Thatcher, Theresa May and now Liz Truss. Red Labour has had none.
The truth is, there is a tedious expectation for female leaders to be more admirable, able and inspiring. This is wearying for them, and for rank and file females, and it’s unfair. A woman in power needs the freedom to be as mediocre as any man, but it’s a numbers game. That freedom will be elusive for as long as female leaders stand out because they are so outnumbered.
Truss is helping to rectify matters, as are the Conservatives who made her prime minister just three years after choosing May. While it is hard to calculate, the very existence of another female prime minister should be helping to make her gender cheeringly irrelevant to her leadership.
Personally, one of the last things I find myself thinking about Truss is the fact that she is female. But research suggests I may not be alone, and might feel differently were I male.
This story originally appeared on: Financial Times - Author:Pilita Clark
