Woman leading government. Found this interesting.

Women have long had equality in Finland, it was the first country in Europe to give women the vote and stand for election, and they hold senior positions in all aspects of society. The Finnish language does not differentiate between the genders; there is no 'he' or 'she', just 'hän' to refer to either. Women can also sit quietly in a bar on their own without any problems from men, or even walk home drunk without hassle.

@marco Too civilized. Sounds terrible  🙂

It is more of a cultural thing than a gender issue with a country like Finland. They are just reasonable people who are capable of a healthy dialogue between one another over differences. Without knowing any of your political beliefs, you discussed Finland with admiration so I can assume that you hold what we call liberal beliefs in the U.S. There is a good chance that we will have a president Marjorie Taylor Greene in the U.S. in a few years if we keep on the track we are going, would you still believe that all women are better leaders with a situation like that? Politics seems to be more about culture than gender. In the U.S. we are just extreme. There are women on both sides of these issues doing a great and terrible job in their respective parties. It is who we are. Either exceptional or terrible depending on what the issue is. 

Talk about societal norms or constrictive societal behaviors, the sooner there is a amplified trivial celebration over things like this, the sooner things like this will be considered normal.  Yes, it is a paradox, but until it no longer is "newsworthy" for the first man/woman to do this or that, or the first (fill in race here) to do this or do that, it can't really become a normal, accepted thing.  The compulsion by society to categorize everyone and everything into a tidy little box is, in and of itself is an oppressively effective mechanism to segregate, whether it is intended or not.

“In the future, there will be no female leaders. There will just be leaders.”

- Sheryl Sandberg

@subhubphx Yes indeed. People were very excited about the mayor of Chicago when she was voted in because she was the first African American lesbian to hold the office but she is turning out to basically be a monster and that is the point. Age, gender, and sexual orientation shouldn't be held against anybody seeking a leadership position. Politics is just its own thing, it brings out the worst in people and the worst kind of people tend to seek it out but not always. Finland is a success because they are younger women. If there is a really intelligent younger woman who has potential to be a great leader in the U.S. we would probably view her as a little girl with no experience for the office. I have seriously met younger girls who are 15 years old who are smarter than me (and I'm not dumb) but if they have knowledge in something I would listen to them and not dismiss them because of their age. 

Posted by: @lbp6855

Finland is a success because they are younger women. If there is a really intelligent younger woman who has potential to be a great leader in the U.S. we would probably view her as a little girl with no experience for the office. 

AOC ? 

@therachel She has definitely changed the Democratic party and the national debate on issues. For so long there was always the old guard and the progressives who they pandered to but never really listened to. If you could choose, who would be your choice as our first female president? Or who do you think it will be? There is something different about the younger generation of women in the U.S. They are of a higher level of intelligence. 

Well you must be over 35 to run for president so AOC is eligible to run for president in 2024. I am so very tired of being presented with a choice of two different 75 year old white men. Choosing the least bad candidate is growing quite exhausting for me and I really hope AOC decides to run!

@therachel Yea, she is going to be an interesting figure to watch. Out of all of the members of congress that she works closely with that they refer to as "the squad", she will be the only one left standing. The rest of them seem to ideological driven and unable to accept and adapt to the ideas of others. They are polarizing and eventually will be voted out of office. AOC is different though. She seems to very much want to learn, grow, and adapt. She seems more interested in changing the country though the local level rather than any self interest. Which is ironically why she probably won't run for president but it is nice to have representatives with different points of view. By the time she does reach the level of running for president, she will probably be a different person, one who has built a consensus over various issues that both sides of the political divide have in common.