Men dither while women lead in the world

by Hanna Rosin,

This important leader handles the debt crisis with grace, navigating expertly between austerity and growth. The leader’s opponents grumble, more out of jealousy than genuine opposition, and loyal supporters hail the leader as a hero. The leader’s popularity soars; re-election is not in question. Meanwhile, unemployment is at an all-time low, and the leader’s nation is looking like its own island of prosperity, a beacon to a suffering continent.

For President Barack Obama, this is a daydream. For German Chancellor Angela Merkel, this is life. Funny how the most admired leader of the Western world right now, the clearest example we have of consistent success during trying times, is a woman.

The pictures in the news, day after day, tell the story: House Speaker John Boehner looks like he hasn’t slept in weeks. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell looks like he swallowed a lemon. Sen. Ted Cruz looks bizarrely smug while the world crumbles around him, and Obama can only shake his head and loosen his collar. The only Washington type who was smiling on the front page of the newspaper this week was Janet Yellen, newly nominated by Obama to be the chair of the Federal Reserve, and anointed by one observer as the most powerful woman in world history.

Oh, and there was one other person smiling in Washington: Christine Lagarde, chief of the International Monetary Fund, who was in the U.S. capital for the organization’s annual meeting and who said just about the only sensible thing anyone in town has said all week on the debt ceiling crisis: “I hope that in a few weeks’ time, we will look back and say, ‘What a waste of time that was.’ “

This has not been a shining week for the patriarchy. The men in suits dither, posture, plan negotiation sessions and then cancel them, and employ copious military metaphors — “wage battle,” “refuse to surrender” — to no effect. Increasingly they become associated in the minds of the American people with verbs normally used to describe toddlers, such as “tantrum” or “throw a fit.”

Competence, meanwhile belongs to the women, particularly in the usually macho world of global finance.

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