Hillary Clinton appeals to women on the myth that she will shatter a “glass ceiling” that impedes women from high office. But that glass ceiling has already been shattered by women more talented and more courageous, who have fought political battles in male-dominated tribal nations where women are derided.
Hillary is no Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is president of Liberia. An economist by profession, she was educated in the United States and returned to Liberia to serve in the ill-fated administration of William Tolbert, who was killed in a coup in 1980. For the next 25 years, she lived in exile while Nigeria was ruled by Samuel Doe and subsequently by Charles Taylor, a brutal dictator and warlord convicted of war crimes. In 2006, after opposition to Taylor, she won election. Her presidency has been focused on fostering human rights and reconciliation and modernizing Liberia’s economy. In 2011, Sirleaf was awarded a Nobel Peace Prize.
Hillary Clinton is no Margaret Thatcher.
Margaret Thatcher, the “Iron Lady,” led Great Britain’s economic renewal and regained stature as a world leader during the Cold War. She shepherded Great Britain with principles of “Thatcherism” – economic freedom and individual liberty, personal responsibility and hard work. She broke the power of the labor unions and forced the Labour Party to abandon its commitment to nationalized industry, redefine the role of the welfare state, and accept the importance of the free market.
Hillary is no Golda Meir.
In 1948, Golda Meir was one of the signers of Israel’s declaration and was appointed diplomatic minister to Russia. That same year, she was appointed minister to Moscow, but when Israel was attacked by neighboring Arabs, she returned and was elected to the Israeli parliament. Israeli prime minister David Ben-Gurion sent Meir on a secret mission, disguised as an Arab, to plead with King Abdullah I not to enter in a war against Israel. Abdullah declined. At age 68, tired and ill, Meir contemplated retirement but was drafted to lead her party. When Prime Minister Levi Eshkol died, she served out the balance of his term and won election in 1969, becoming Israel’s fourth prime minister, the world’s third woman with that title. She was a tough woman with a tough job in a vulnerable and continually threatened democracy.
