Preface. Hector Garcia makes the case that women make better leaders in an excerpt from his book below. His conclusion is that “scientific literature shows that when women are allowed greater political and economic power, which is inseparable from the power to control their own reproduction, quality of life measurably improves for everyone.”

Alice Friedemann   www.energyskeptic.com  author of “When Trucks Stop Running: Energy and the Future of Transportation”, 2015, Springer, Barriers to Making Algal Biofuels, and “Crunch! Whole Grain Artisan Chips and Crackers”. Podcasts: Collapse Chronicles, Derrick Jensen, Practical Prepping, KunstlerCast 253, KunstlerCast278, Peak Prosperity , XX2 report

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Garcia, H. 2019. Sex, Power, and Partisanship. How evolutionary science makes sense of our political divide.  Prometheus.

Historically, men have blocked women from the political process.  It was only recently that women were allowed a voice in US politics—the 19^th amendment to the constitution, which granted women equal voting rights, was granted in 1920.  Saudi Arabia was the last nation to give women the right to vote in 2015.

Scholars have observed that women entering political leadership positions often display excessive hawkishness, which may help to establish themselves within the male primate hierarchy that politics has always been.  But most women across all levels of society are less hawkish.  A large body of research shows that women citizens are les likely to support the use of military force.  Research has found that when the ratio of women in legislatures increases, nations are less likely to use military force to solve conflicts with other nations.

Looking at 22 nations from 1970 to 2000 it was found that as the number of women legislators increased, nations were less likely to engage in an extensive list of conflict behaviors with other nations, such as threats, sanctions, demands, or actual military engagements.  The researchers also calculated Right-Left orientation of nations based on the percentage of government seats that parties held. As we might expect, Right-oriented nations spent more on defense overall.  But as the percentage of women legislators increased, defense spending decreased.  This decrease occurred at the same rate across nations that were Right-oriented, such as the U.S., and those that were Left-oriented, such as Norway, and the results were quantifiable.  In 2000, every 1% increase in women legislators in the U.S. produced a $314 million reduction in defense spending (out of $311 billion in total military spending). A 1% increase in women legislators in Norway saw a $3.34 million decrease out of $3.3 billion.

In 2008 Rwanda became the first nation in history to have a female majority in parliament. The shift of power to women resulted in laws to limit make sexual control. Domestic violence became illegal, and harsh prison sentences were legislated for rape.  Further, birth rates and maternal mortality dropped, doors were opened for women to own land and open bank accounts, daughters were allowed to inherit property, and the percentage of women in the labor force surged.  In 2009, the women-led government mandated basic education for all Rwandan children.  In 2016, the World Economic Forum’s global gender gap report ranked Rwanda fifth in the world on gender equality.  The U.S. ranks 45^th.

Before male competition destroyed 20% of Rwandan males in the genocide, it oppressed Rwandan women. In the years leading up to the massacre, women lived under patriarchal control. Women’s property ownership was practically unheard of, literacy among women was low, and maternal mortality was high.

A clear conclusion of the scientific literature is that when women are allowed greater political and economic power, which is inseparable from the power to control their own reproduction, quality of life measurably improves for everyone.