By Morenike Taire

If Hilary Clinton wins her country’s presidential elections this year- and a good many folks outside of the United States seem to think she will- it will be the first time in the history of our civilization that the free world will be led by women.

Mrs. Hilary clinton

On its own, that long-awaited event would have been the end of one era and the beginning of another. Women have been heads of governments across the world decades ago, and particularly in Asia where Benazir Bhutto, a Harvard graduate, had been elected president in the Moslem country of Pakistan in the 80s and 90s. Indira Gandhi had, before her, been Prime Minister in post colonial India, and the two have even attained legend statuses in their respective countries.

Still, the world’s ultimate superpower had failed to attain that particular feat. As she wraps up her 10-year presidency, with at least 20 contenders already vying for her place in the 2017 elections, Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf who became Africa’s first female president at a time when her country was emerging from civil war, only inheriting mutual mistrust and broken infrastructure; already had company. Her German counterpart, Angela Dorothea Merkel was already German Chancellor in the Northern part of the world.

Still the world has been caught unawares that the reelection(s) of these women coincided with the agitation of the British to restore their sovereignty, identity and culture, resulting in her exit from the European Union (EU) and the resignation of her earstwhile Prime Minister. And that after decades of waiting on the sidelines and a most distinguished career, the woman said to be the most qualified American presidential candidate in history finally gets to be nominated.

But the missing piece of the puzzle had been Britain, which was so precocious that while women in other nations were just agitating to break corporate glass ceilings, she already had a super-madam- Prime Minister. Margaret Hilda Thatcher who steered the United Kingdom’s affairs from 1979 to 1990, came way before her time, paving the way for the times to come.

This missing piece was put in place in July, when Theresa May became the United Kingdom’s Prime Minister by what some might call a default. And while the 59 year old conservative is not the first of her country, all four women have one thing in common apart from being around the same age: they preside over uncommon times. When- and if- the Hilary Clinton piece of the gender puzzle is put in its place, the world’s affairs could be said to be presided over by women.

Exciting as the prospect is, it has not been honeycombs and chewing gum for these continental female leaders. Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, who was awarded a Nobel prize for her great efforts at rebuilding her war torn nation, has been accused of nepotism and corruption. A fellow Laureate Leymah Gbowee quit her position as head of the government’s Peace and Reconciliation Commission and launching a scathing attack on the president’s record.

Gbowee’s criticism focused on two areas: first, the nepotism of Sirleaf’s government, symbolized perfectly by the high positions occupied by three of her sons. Robert is head of the state oil company and a senior economic advisor; Fumba is head of the National Security Agency; and Charles is deputy governor of the Central Bank (although he is currently suspended for failing to declare his assets).Second, Gbowee thinks Sirleaf has not done enough to address poverty in Liberia.

“In her first term she developed infrastructure. But what good is infrastructure if people don’t have enough to eat? The gap between the rich and poor is growing. You are either rich or dirt poor, there’s no middle class.”

Both May and Merkel are currently under fire, with Germans rioting against the latter after terrorist attacks on their country blamed upon her ‘open door policy’. Theresa May is under severe criticism for her appointments. Yvette Cooper, a British journalist, writes of her: “May believes in justice, but not in social justice; in individual enterprise, but not in uniting communities”. On her part, Hilary Clinton has barely emerged from the server issues that bedeviled her days as secretary of state.

In a way, it’s even been something of an anticlimax that despite it all, the world might not be as ready for female leadership as it might have thought it was. They have had their fair share of sexist jokes, even when they are all, without exception, phenomenally brilliant individuals who are not only as capable as any man, but who had already distinguished themselves at various endeavours.

While May’s red suit at the 2016 Budget talks revealed more than a little cleavage and sparked a debate more heated than the economy; so much has been made of the “matching blue suits” in which Hilary Clinton and Elizabeth Warren appeared in Cincinatti on the campaign trail. Vladimir Putin, Silvio Berlusconi and other men of poor taste have made countless sexist jokes at the expense of Angela Merkel, who has grown a thick skin. Many, many more are expected to come.

Fortunately, the women are ready.