Women Leading the Future

What a momentous day, after a long break, for me to begin re-writing my blog - Women Leading the Future. Just a few short hours ago here in Australia we had our first female Prime Minister elected. Kevin Rudd, the former Prime Minister stood down knowing he didn't have the numbers to contest.

Julia Gillard is surely a woman who will lead the future of Australia. Let's hope we allow her to do that and not be distracted by focussing on peripherals like her hair, her dress or her voice, rather than the real issues. We have seen the media on countless occasions  distort the talent and competence of Australia's women leaders by focussing on these kinds of issues, issues that are never mentioned in relation to male leaders.

Does it matter that our Prime Minister is a woman? Is gender an issue in leadership anymore?

Yes, it does matter. We need women like Julia Gillard to show Australia and the world that women can be competent and effective leaders at the very top levels of government and business. We are, after all, more than 50% of the population and we need to be there at the top providing a diversity of thought and opinion that can only enrich and enlighten all decision-making both locally and globally.

There are those who believe it doesn't matter, that what's important is that we get the best person for the job. Agreed, and Julia Gillard is the best person for the job. She was not elected to be Prime Minister of Australia because she was a woman. She was elected because she has demonstrated that she has the leadership skills and political savvy to lead the Australian Labor Party into a win in the next election.

So What's Ahead for Her?

This is where I put on my hat as the former psychotherapist. 

She takes over from a man who only a few months ago had the highest approval rating of any previous Australian Prime Minister. While what happened this morning had to be, it must have been an extremely difficult time for members of the Labor Party. His fall will be the subject of much discussion and debate in the days ahead.

I've done a lot of thinking about Kevin Rudd as I've watched him in recent weeks. I identify with his struggle. I think if I was in his position I would be responding the way he has.

He is a deep and reflective thinker. He is an idealist rather than a pragmatist. He came to power prepared to restore integrity to Australian politics which Howard had eroded. Howard was a pragmatist who compromised his idealism. Rudd also promised to tap into some of the psyche, the soul issues for Australian people - saying sorry to our indigenous people, developing a more humanitarian response to refugees, climate change, for example. We had lost our Australian identity and soul under Howard.

Rudd is stil the same person, but he discovered, as I have, that it is very difficult in leadership to align one's idealism with pragmatic solutions without being seen to be compromising one's integrity. So it has looked as if he has been sitting on the fence, lacking in conviction and integrity.

He's had to let go of climate change - "the greatest moral challenge of our times" - because he couldn't get it through the senate. The only way to take it further was to test it with a double dissolution. He wasn't prepared to do that.

I think the dilemma of Kevin Rudd as I understand it (from my psychotherapist position) is very much a dilemma I have faced many times in my career - how do you balance idealism with pragmatism and get the results you want and keep everybody on your side?

Julia Gillard will do that very well. She is a pragmatist, but a highly intelligent one. She seems to be able to translate policy and complex issues into the language of the people. She is a very good and persuasive communicator.

She also has an inner toughness and resilience that will see her avoid many of the internal challenges that I suspect Kevin Rudd experienced in the role. These were the challenges that saw him reportedly behave towards his staff in unacceptable ways which obviously his inner resources were not strong enough to contain.

I am reminded of a quote by William Arthur Ward:

"The pessimist complains about the wind,

The optimist expects it to change,

and the realist adjusts the sails."

It is now time for the politically savvy Julia Gillard, the realist, to adjust the sails. When the wind changed in recent Australian politics, Kevin Rudd wasn't able to do this.