Women in Politics?

A natural experiment

Presumably we insist on pushing women into positions of power no matter how unsuitable they may seem to be.. because we have an unconscious desire to destroy our societies.. If women are better than men, it follows that we want them running things, which means that when looking for leaders we don’t need to consider men unless no woman can be found. The search for the best candidate becomes a search for the best female candidate. Richard Knight.

Human females are the natural world’s most specialized organisms. Their specialization shapes their anatomies, physiologies, minds, brains1, IQ and emotions2. They sacrifice abstractions to focus relentlessly on the particular, the personal, the immediate and the social–for decades–to raise children to maturity3.

The notion that they can also functionally compete with men in abstraction, generalization and impersonal decision-making is nothing more than equalitarianism4.

Evidence suggests that women in national leadership roles do even more harm than men, and nowhere is this more obvious than in their endless, hysterical advocacy for violence, mass murder, conflict and thermonuclear war.

• Indira Gandhi sent the Indian Army into the Sikh Golden Temple whereupon her own Sikh bodyguards shot her. External threat identification is not a womanly strength.

• Margaret Thatcher unleashed the neoliberalism that destroyed British industry and the financialization that gutted its economy.

• Madalyn Albright: Q: “Half a million children have died as a result of the Iraq embargoes. Is the price worth it?” A: “We think the price is worth it”.

• Hillary Clinton who, as First Lady, derailed hope of improved health insurance and as Secretary of State destroyed Libya. Obama labelled this his single greatest failure. She vindictively launched Russiagate and, in so doing, destroyed faith in America’s election process.

• Angela Merkel conspired for eight years to launch the Ukraine war that killed hundreds of thousands of innocent people.

• Kaja Kallas, Estonian PM, urged the world to use long-range weapons “to bring Russia to its knees by inflicting a humiliating defeat in Ukraine”.

• Mette Frederiksen, Danish PM, called long-range missiles to strike deep into Russia, “Only Russia started this war. Let’s end discussion about red lines”.

• Ursula von der Leyen, unelected EU President and Ukraine warmonger, defied repeated efforts to indict her for massive corruption as she led the EU into bankruptcy and dissolution.

• Annalina Baerbock, German Defense Minister, voted the stupidest foreign minister in German history. “Vladimir Putin must change by 360 degrees”. “No matter what my German voters think, I will help Ukraine as long as it needs”.

• Victoria Nuland, US Undersecretary of State, instigated the Kiev Massacre and drove the Ukraine war. She left on the eve of defeat.

• Nikki Haley, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, literally speaks for herself.

• Chrystia Freeland, Canada’s deputy PM, convinced the West to freeze $300 billion in Russian assets: “Pussyfooting around Putin doesn’t really work.. A Ukrainian victory would make Canada safer and more prosperous by reinforcing the rules-based international order”.

• Gina Raimondo, US Commerce Secretary claimed Huawei’s chip breakthrough was years away on the day Huwei shipped millions of ICs more advanced that Intel’s. Gina claimed her sanctions forced Russia to cannibalize washing machine parts for its weapons–since proven more advanced than ours.

• Penny Wong, Australia’s FM, has bilateral myopia and terminal amorality. While Jews were bombing its neighbors and threatening to bomb Iran, and as 168 countries were walking out on Netanyahu’s UN speech, Penny stayed. Later, she announced, “I pressed Iran’s FM Araghchi for regional de-escalation and restraint and raised Australia’s concerns about human rights and Iranian-Russian military cooperation”.

Women in a meritocratic political system

China is more welcoming of women in leadership roles than the West, thanks to the first bill Mao Zedong, the greatest women’s liberator, signed: The Law of the People’s Republic of China on the Protection of Rights and Interests of Women. Today, more Chinese women are corporate CEOs, CFOs and senior executives than in

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the West and most elite civil service recruits are women who are promoted over men with equivalent qualifications. Yet only one, the wonderful Sun Chunlun, has risen to Ministerial rank and none has joined the Steering Committee. Zhao Bing Bing, a mid-level official in Liaoning Province, explained her experience of provincial civil service promotions to Daniel Bell:

I was promoted in 2004 through my department’s internal competition (30% on written exam results, 30% on interviews and public speaking, 30% on public opinion of my work, and 10% on education, seniority, and my current position) and became the youngest deputy division chief.

In 2009, Liaoning Province (pop. 44 m.) announced an open selection of officials in the national media. Sixty candidates met the qualifications, the top five of whom were invited for interviews. Based on their test scores (40%) and interview results (60%), the top three were then appraised: four appraisers spent an entire day checking my records. Eighty of my colleagues were asked to vote, and more than thirty were asked to talk with the appraisers about my merits and shortcomings. The appraisers submitted their result to the provincial Standing Committee of the CCP for review.

In principle, the person who scored the highest and whose appraisals were not problematic would be promoted. However, because my university major, work experience, and previous performance were the best fit for the position, I was finally appointed department chief of the Liaoning Provincial Foreign Affairs Office even though my overall score was second-best.

Before the official appointment, there was a seven-day public notice period during which anybody could report to the organization department concerns about my promotion. I didn’t spend any money during my three promotions; all I did was study and work hard and do my best to be a good person..

In a famous quote, Chairman Mao said, “Once the political lines have been clearly defined, the decisive factor will be the cadres [trained specialists]”. So, the CCP highly values organizational construction and the selection and appointment of specialists. Mao established the department managing this work, The Organization Department, in 1924 and was its first leader. It’s responsible for the macro-management of leaders and staff (team building), the management system, regulations and laws, human resource system reforms: planning, research, and direction, proposing suggestions on the leadership change and (re)appointment of cadres and training and supervising cadres.

The selection criteria are: a person must have ‘both ability and moral integrity and the latter should be prioritized’. The evaluation of moral integrity focuses mostly on loyalty to the Party, service to the people, self-discipline, and integrity. Based on different levels and positions, the emphases of evaluation are also different. For intermediate and senior officials, the focus is on their persistence in faith and ideals, political stance, and coordination with the central Party. High-level cadres are measured against great politicians, and, among them, experience in multiple positions is very important. Daniel Bell, The China Model.

China’s civil service has been relentlessly meritocratic since 500 AD. Leadership careers begin in remote, flyblown villages where young graduates toil until they raise collective incomes by 50%, and promotions are stats-driven throughout. Political careers thus make marriage by age 25 virtually impossible for girls, which is why mothers and grandmothers unanimously oppose such a career choice (Xi Jinping’s elite first wife left him when he he received his first remote assignment).

Though perquisites improve as they rise, officials’ salaries are niggardly: President Xi’s is sixty-six thousand dollars. The track records of the top one thousand politicians are available online, and are impressive. Most have run huge provinces, Fortune 500 companies, universities and/or space programs. During sabbaticals at lakeside Academy of Governance, they earn PhDs, meet global thinkers, critique senior officials’ policies, then go on to study or teach at Harvard, Oxford or Cambridge for a year. There is no room for family life or, indeed much of anything we’d call a ‘life’.

Officials rise in responsibility in direct proportion to their capacity for abstraction. Will successful childhood obesity program scale from the village to the provincial level–where one-hundred million lives will be impacted–and, if so, at what political and economic cost?

An American professor friend met a senior Chinese health official in the 1990s and asked why his ministry had done so little to eliminate smoking, “It is a problem,” replied the minister, “but it is also a temporary solution to many poor men. Smoking is an emotional salve for young, single uneducated men anxious about their life and marriage prospects. For us to deal with that means we must first deal with their wages, their housing, their health and their social status, and we are beginning to do that. But I’m responsible for ensuring that 4 billion clean, healthy meals are served every day and disposing of the resulting shit”.

Service is love in action. Mothers’ service to their children is the essence of loving sacrifice and so is a lifetime devoted to public health, which is why Chinese civil servants are called ‘mother-father officials’. Both roles require very different skills, so we should not be surprised that specialists in one do better in their specialty than in the others’.