The Brains Above the Vaginas

By Neil Gonsalves | Beyond the North American echo chamber lies inspiration for young women in search of real heroes.

Written by Neil Gonsalves for Seeking Veritas | Sankarsingh-Gonsalves Productions

Purging, that essential activity often necessitated by down sizing provides a great opportunity to go through the things we collect, a time to hold on to what we still treasure and let go of things that have lost their functional, emotional, or sentimental utility. I have to admit I have a problem when it comes to letting go of books I’ve read, so when I recently sorted through all the stacks I accumulated over the years, I knew I had to let some go. Let’s just say I begrudgingly made a lot of donations.

Among the books I came across was Hillary Clinton’s ‘What Happened’ it instantly transported me back to 2015-2016 (hard to believe that was a decade ago). I flipped through the pages looking at my old notes and highlighted passages, the book was written in the aftermath of her 2016 electoral loss to Donald Trump.

Glass Ceilings

The 2016 election cycle evoked a great deal of fervour and debate among regular folk, both within the US and outside. I remember numerous Canadians wearing the “I’m With Her” shirts, people from across the socio-economic spectrum had plenty of opinions about her candidacy. Even Canadians found themselves vocally supporting Clinton, despite not having a vote in the fight. The major prevailing narrative that galvanized many in Canada was the prospect of a female president in the US.

Perhaps some remembered the concession speech she had delivered just eight years earlier when she conceded the Democratic presidential nomination to Obama, she said in 2008,;

“… think how much progress we’ve already made. When we first started, people everywhere asked the same questions. Could a woman really serve as commander in chief?… But I am a woman and, like millions of women, I know there are still barriers and biases out there, often unconscious… we will someday launch a woman into the White House. Although we weren’t able to shatter that highest, hardest glass ceiling this time, thanks to you, it’s got about 18 million cracks in it, and the light is shining through like never before, filling us all with the hope and the sure knowledge that the path will be a little easier next time”

When she ultimately lost her 2016 bid to be America’s first female president, many Canadians posted comments of shock and dismay, they commented publicly on what that meant for their daughters, and how they would talk to their girls about women’s empowerment. Perhaps it had something to do with the fact she lost to someone whose misogyny was not truly challenged even when he was caught on tape making vulgar comments about women, his remarks would have probably ended most people presidential aspirations but Trump actually said,

“I moved on her, actually. You know, she was down on Palm Beach. I moved on her, and I failed. I’ll admit it…. I did try and fuck her. She was married… I moved on her like a bitch. But I couldn’t get there. And she was married. Then all of a sudden I see her, she’s now got the big phony tits… You know, I’m automatically attracted to beautiful — I just start kissing them. It’s like a magnet. Just kiss. I don’t even wait. And when you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything… Grab ’em by the pussy. You can do anything…”

I listened as pundits, newscasters, and women in general spoke about how their daughters lost a role model but had to persevere with the belief that women would one day be treated with respect. They wondered out loud and online about the key line at the crescendo of her concession speech,

“I know we have still not shattered that highest and hardest glass ceiling, but someday someone will and hopefully sooner than we might think right now.”

While I didn’t agree with a great many of Hillary Clinton’s policy positions, I always thought she was an incredible person. I admired her intellect, her tenacity, her many accomplishments, and her long and distinguished record of public service. I believed she may have been one of the most qualified people who ever ran for the office of President of the United States. It’s a presidency I would have liked to have witnessed.

Fast forward eight years, another woman, Kamala Harris, was at the top of the Democratic ticket. Once again like clockwork, North Americans returned to the familiar and strangely tentative question: “Is the United States finally ready for a woman president to break through that glass ceiling?”

A Different Lens

Each time the question is asked, it’s framed as bold and progressive, as if the very idea is still a new frontier. The questions come tinged with both hope and hesitation, as if the very notion of a woman leading a nation still resides on the edge of imagination.

But for me, these debates have always been bewildering. Not because I don’t care about gender equality in politics, I do, but because for those of us who grew up outside of North America, or with an international lens, this hand-wringing feels puzzling.

My family watched the nightly world news together, it was a time when the news broadcast was not politically polarizing but simply reporting. I was raised learning about powerful women who didn’t just break the glass ceiling, they shattered it decades ago and governed over the shards. For me, female leadership wasn’t a novelty or some radical, hypothetical “what if”, it was history. It was current affairs. It was reality.

My formative years were shaped by names like Maggie Thatcher, Indira Gandhi, and Benazir Bhutto among many others, all of whom rightly belonged in the headlines and the history books. They weren’t anomalies to me, they were leaders. Normal. Natural. Obvious.

Iron Ladies

Of all the great leaders I have come across in my life three stand head and shoulders above the rest. Margaret Thatcher, Indira Gandhi, and Golda Meir. These three women obviously shaped their nations, but they also directly influenced my appreciation of political leadership itself.

Margaret Thatcher, my favourite Iron Lady, who became Britain’s first female prime minister in 1979 held office for 11 years, making her the longest serving British prime minister of the 20th century. From humble beginnings, the daughter of a grocer, she would become the paragon of conservatism. She was unflinching, unapologetic, and deeply transformative. Her economic reforms redefined the role of government in the economy. With a firm belief in free markets, privatization, and individual responsibility, she rolled back state ownership and union power, ushering in what came to be known as “Thatcherism” that changed the face of the United Kingdom. Whether you admired her ideology or opposed it, you couldn’t ignore her impact. Watching her command the world stage, I saw a woman who wielded power with absolute confidence, who never seemed to second-guess her right to lead.

Indira Gandhi, India’s first female prime minister, served first from 1966 to 1977, and then again from 1980 until her assassination in 1984. She was a dominant presence in South Asian politics for nearly two decades. Leading the world’s largest democracy through a period of major transformation. I was drawn to her fearless authority, shrewd diplomatic prowess, and military leadership; she was a central figure in the 1971 war that led to the creation of Bangladesh. Even her return to office revealed a political resilience that I found remarkable. Gandhi didn’t just occupy space, she altered the landscape, her formidable leadership style earned her both admiration and critique, but never doubt over her ability to command. Her political legacy, for better or worse, helped shape modern India.

And then there was Golda Meir, who I learned about later, probably because I grew up in one of the most Anti-Semitic parts of the world where even the word Israel was commonly blacked-out in our school atlas’ and books. She is often called the “Iron Lady” of Israeli politics long before the phrase was applied elsewhere. Meir served as Israel’s prime minister from 1969 to 1974. She brought a sharp pragmatism to Israeli leadership during some of its most turbulent years. As the country’s first and, to date, only female prime minister, Meir led Israel through the harrowing days of the Yom Kippur War, when multiple Arab nations launched a coordinated attack on Israel from multiple fronts simultaneously. She made difficult decisions regarding national defence and helped shape the young nation's foreign policy with clarity and conviction. Her no-nonsense style and fierce commitment to the survival of her country made her both revered and controversial, but never underestimated.

These weren’t distant figures to me, they were fixtures in the world I grew up in. Their names, speeches, policies, and legacies helped me understand what leadership could look like.

Defying Assumptions

In 1986, Corazon Aquino rose to power in the Philippines following the People Power Revolution, toppling a dictatorship and restoring democracy in the country. In 1988, Benazir Bhutto made history in Pakistan as the first woman to head a democratic government in a Muslim-majority country. Her election was a global milestone defying assumptions not just about gender, but about politics, religion, and power. By the early 1990s, South Asia was leading the world in female political leadership. Khaleda Zia became prime minister of Bangladesh in 1991, followed by Sheikh Hasina’s 1996 election. In 1994, Chandrika Kumaratunga became president of Sri Lanka, the daughter of Sirimavo Bandaranaike, herself the world’s first female prime minister in 1960. Just think, Sri Lanka had a female prime minister long before women in many Western countries could even sign a credit card without a husband’s approval.

So by the time I was reading about Isabel Perón becoming president of Argentina in 1974, or Vigdís Finnbogadóttir winning Iceland’s presidential election in 1980, it didn’t feel revolutionary, it felt expected. Just a continuing legacy of powerful female leadership around the world. They weren’t figureheads or exceptions, they were central players in their countries’ political stories.

On the shoulders of giants

When Kim Campbell became Canada’s first and only female prime minister in 1993, assuming you even count her six month stint, the moment didn’t feel groundbreaking to me, it felt late. Her brief time in office seemed more like a footnote than a turning point. North America, I realized, wasn’t setting the pace on women’s political empowerment, it was struggling to keep up.

When Angela Merkel became the Chancellor of Germany in 2005, it felt like the natural evolution of the women I had grown up witnessing or learning about, no drama, just decisive leadership. Merkel, often nicknamed “The Decider” and “The Chancellor of Europe”, would quietly but confidently steer Germany for 16 years. Her calm, steady pragmatism earned her respect on the world stage and a place in the history books. Her tenure at the helm offered a modern day masterclass in quiet, consistent, competent leadership.

Today, women like Kaja Kallas in Estonia, Mia Mottley in Barbados, Tsai Ing-wen in Taiwan, and Giorgia Meloni in Italy continue to prove that women are not just capable of leading nations, they’ve been doing it successfully for decades. From Ellen Johnson Sirleaf in Liberia to Sahle-Work Zewde in Ethiopia, the global political landscape is rich with examples of female leadership.

Retiring the Myth

So when I hear North American pundits earnestly debate whether society is “ready” for a woman to lead, I find myself blinking in disbelief. Ready? Why are we still asking? The world has been ready for generations. Here is what puzzles me most, while I was being raised on stories of women in power, North America seemed stuck on the question of whether leadership and femininity could coexist.

Paradoxically, it’s often North America that lectures the rest of the world about patriarchy, gender equality, and women’s empowerment, as if it’s leading the charge. The assumption, explicit or implied, is that patriarchy is something “over there,” a problem to be solved with aid dollars and foreign intervention. But if political leadership is any barometer of empowerment, it seems North America might have a few lessons to learn itself. And a great starting point for our daughters and young women might be to look outside of North America for real inspiration outside the echo chamber of grievance culture.

For me, women in power was never a radical idea. It was history and it was daily news. It was normal. And if much of the world has already accepted that reality long ago, why is one of the most powerful regions on Earth still debating it and framing it as a threshold yet to be crossed.

It’s time to retire the myth that North America is at the forefront of gender progress just because it says it is. We are very good at making a lot of noise but often lacklustre about actually contending with facts. The numbers and the history books tell a more complicated story. Female leadership isn’t an untested experiment; it’s a well-documented reality in much of the world. While the rest of the world has been busy making history, North America still seems to be debating whether it should begin.

Instead of asking whether North America is ready for a woman at the helm, perhaps the better question is: Why has it taken so long?

About the Author:

Neil Gonsalves

is the author of, ‘I’m Not Your Token: Unapologetic Clarity in Divided Times’, a TEDx speaker, and a post-secondary educator. He is a three-time International Impact Book Award winner, and was also honoured with the 2025 Durham Community Champion Medallion for his dedication to community improvement.

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