Matt Rourke/AP/Press Association Images. All rights reserved.The role of women in leadership is a defining movement for my generation and one of the most pressing global issues of our time. Of the many societal wounds that the current US election has dragged out into the light of day, few feats have been as simultaneously daunting and inspiring to watch as Hillary Clinton’s race towards fracturing that ‘hardest, highest glass ceiling’ of sexism. It has been equally uninspiring to watch Donald Trump’s surge of misogyny culminate in the release of tapes that record him bragging about what can only and incontestably be described as predatory sexual assault.
After the release of the tape, the Republican Party, whose decline has become a threat to global security, seemed to burst at the seams as they put on a show of deep ‘soul searching.’ A “sickened” Paul Ryan declared that women “are to be championed and revered”, while a litany of other Republican men invoked their mothers, wives, sisters and a plethora of other female characters to be found in their lives, while speaking avidly of their anger and disgust at the comments of the man they supported and endorsed as their nominee (tip: don’t treat other people with equality and dignity because of who they are relative to you; do it as an exercise in basic decency).
And then, the aforementioned nominee walked into a debate and, acting in a fashion that was consistent with his behaviour throughout this campaign and, indeed, his entire adult life, called his opponent a “nasty woman.”
