There are people who think it would be great to have a women in the White House. But not all women embody the traits that we often associate with women. For example, psychologist Carol Gilligan, in her ground-breaking book In a Different Voice, argues that women emphasize relationships, caring, social cooperation, and harmony much more than men. [1] This may well be true, but, of course, we know that some women have also embodied horrific qualities: some women have been murderers, child abusers, or the commandants of Nazi concentration camps. Women can repress or distort the so-called feminine characteristics through becoming sociopaths, or through primary identification with their super-wealthy social class, or through assimilating cultural hatred of some out group, for example Jews, Blacks, Communists, or Muslims.
Will Hillary likely bring “feminine” characteristics to the US Presidency if elected? Will she promote peace, cooperation, economic and political equality, and justice for all within our country and will she promote peace, the sovereign equality of nations, obedience to UN principles of international law, and multilateralism among nations? (None of these conditions among nations, of course, reflect the highest world federalist values, but we cannot expect more at this point in history of any US President.)