Are Men Better Leaders Than Women?

It’s understandable that whenever most of us think of a leader, a male figure comes to mind. Maybe it’s because the world we have been living in, is and has been blessed with an array of inspiring leaders that fall under the male category. But truth be told, women are also right up there amongst the 'Obama’s' of this world when it comes to leadership. The question is who is better at it?

I would presume that if the overwhelming odds end up favouring men, women would label society as sexist and if the tables were turned, men would be in deep denial. But putting aside their own gender defence, both men and women are equally in line to believe that they are superior from each other, leadership wise.

My stance is that men and women are equally competent at leadership. The conventional believe however, is that men are physically stronger as back in the stone age, men hunted and protected women from danger, which meant they were required to be the decision makers. This sad fact, caused women to believe men were better in every aspect, when in truth they were just physically stronger at most.

This goes to show, that we perceive those who stand alone to make decisions for others with 'tremendous respect'. Given this historical aspect, men seem to have had an advantage, while women have been overlooked.

The likes of Indira Gandhi (the first female Prime Minister of India) or Margaret Thatcher aka the Iron Lady (the British politician and former Prime Minister of the U.K.) are one of the many women that made it through the biased time to prove that they were equally capable or better at leadership. They do in fact have a much better sense of weighing the options compared to men.

Most men are possessive and rigid when it comes to what they believe in. Rarely do they even consider another’s opinion or alternative as they have this sense of 'I know what I’m doing', which is confident yes, but not the wisest move. That is not to say women are spotless, but in the end it is a generalization.

Men and women should not be conformed to gender specification, as the saying goes, 'women can play football, men can cook'. Of course it would be a whole lot easier if we could say that men are better leaders because of so and so, or women are better leaders because of this and that.

But we humans are different. There are no two men that are alike and vice versa. So unless all men are the same or all women are the same, there is no possible way to generalize who’s better at anything, let alone leadership.

A Million Dollar Coin

Nadia was a girl who believed in, well, believed in nothing at all. She lived with Marco, her pet mongrel in a rented apartment nearby aSubway station. Nadia’s perception of life was negative as she was an orphan who spent her entire childhood hoping that someone would adopt her. As you can imagine, no one ever did and Nadia grew up never hoping for anything again.

A journalist in a city full of crime and corruption, Nadia struggled her way up through many channels, most of which were not ethical but she did eventually make it. Jerald was Nadia’s best friend, however, their friendship somewhat dispersed due to their individualism, 2 years became 3 and they have yet to speak, let alone see each other.

Although life seemed cruel on her, Nadia never felt sorry for herself. However, she did not know how to deal with her disappointments which often led to her being depressed and isolating herself. Nevertheless, she thought she was living a rather happy life until a rainy afternoon in December, changed her life forever.

Coming out of her office, Nadia realized she had left her umbrella on her desk. She chooses to take the stairs up back to her office and whilst running down the steps with her umbrella in hand, she drops her hand bag, and screams in exasperation, “Really!” as she sits on the steps and sobs silently.

Being a pessimist, Nadia had a negative outlook even towards trivial matters. As she picked herself up to leave the office, Nadia chanced upon a coin near the staircase that looked unusual and picked it up, wondering who could have dropped it. As she put the coin into her pocket, she thought to herself, “What am I doing? It’s a dirty worthless coin, arrrghhh”

She decides at that split second to dispose of it, only to notice a vagabond outside of her office with an empty white paper cup. He looked strangely young and clean to be a vagabond. After a short pause, Nadia throws the coin into the cup and walks off with her umbrella in the rain.

Whilst riding the bus home, the day slowly becomes night, and Nadia is left pondering on her life. “Am I really happy?” She asks herself, putting her hands into her jacket pocket as the night got cold, only to realize the same coin she threw away, in her pocket. “What the hell?” She murmurs softly and tries recalling how she could have gotten this strange coin back after deliberately throwing it away.

She then shrugs off the thought, assuming she had actually not thrown the coin into the white paper cup after all. The next day, Nadia gets ready to go to work as usual when someone knocks on her door. Wondering who it maybe, Nadia opens a peep hole and sees no one. Bemused, Nadia is not one to easily get alarmed, so she immediately opens the door to find a brown package at her doorstep.

The package read,“Dear Mr Kumar, this is specially for you”. Shocked and a little creeped out, Nadia knows who the package is for, her former best friend Jerald Kumar whom she had not seen or spoken to for 3 years. She immediately grabs the package and leaves her apartment straight for work.

Her colleagues notice something different about Nadia as she passes by them, and continue to stare at her throughout the day. A midst her reporting duty, Nadia cannot stop thinking about the package she had left in her car and just about makes it through the day, with near misses in her job everywhere.

On her way home, Nadia decides to take a chance and send the package herself to Jerald’s house, in hope that he might be still living in the same place. Pitch dark with no street lights, Nadia’s reaches Jerald’s home. Dead silent, the sound of her car’s engine appears to be able wake up the whole neighbourhood.

8:01 pm it is, as Nadia glances at her watch to check the time. Anxious, she starts to feel how weird it is for her to visit a guy she had not met for 3 years at this hour. Embarrassed, Nadia decides to just leave the package by the door and leave.

Whilst doing so, Nadia reminiscence the time when Jerald and her were inseparable. From the very first time they shared a meal together in the canteen of their orphanage home, road tripping after they graduated, getting stuck in the rain waiting for a bus to the last time they shook hands and went their separate ways.

Overwhelmed by emotion, Nadia shed a tear and just as she was about to leave, a familiar voice called out to her, “Nadia?” Stunned and a little embarrassed, she races to her car trying to avoid a confrontation. Jerald goes after Nadia and holds her hand saying, “Hey? Why are you running away?” Unable to control her tears, Nadia says, “Sorry”, softly with her back facing him and darts back into her car. 

Confused, Jerald walks back into his house and opens the mysterious brown package left at his doorstep. It was so tightly wrapped; Jerald had to use his pocket knife to open it. As he cut of the wrapper, he shook the box. It felt unusually light and he could hear something tiny inside as he kept shaking it. Intrigued, he opens the box to find a silver coin.

The next day, Nadia awakens to Marco licking her face. She yawns and stretches her body as Marco jumps off her bed and starts wining strangely. Disturbed by Marco’s unusual behaviour, Nadia decides to take Marco out for a walk. Drizzling, Nadia regrets taking Marco out when suddenly; she is approached from the back by someone.

“Don’t freak out, it’s just me” “Whaat? Jerald! What are you doing here?” “I had to see you. Why did you leave like that?” “Well I was embarrassed; I was a mess and you looked sooo...” “Sooo..?” “Good” Blushing, Jerald starts playing with Marco and says, “Let’s have breakfast!”

Unable to resist spending more time with him, Nadia smiles in agreement. They tie Marco outside a nearby coffee shop and enter not knowing they would both come out of there changed men and women. Whilst eating, Nadia remembers of the strange package she left at Jerald’s doorstep and asks, “Owh Yea, what was in the package?” 

“Wait, I thought you sent it to me." “What? No. It was on my doorstep, so I delivered it to you” “What the hell? So who the hell sent me a coin? “Whaat?” “Yea, a silver coin, isn’t that weird?” “You have no idea. Wait I’ll show you”

And Nadia put her hand into her jacket pocket to show Jerald only to find nothing there. Surprised, she removes her jacket and does a thorough check. Unable to find it she asks Jerald to show her his coin. With a stunned expression painted all over her face, Jerald holds Nadia and says,

“Okay calm down, you’re all flustered. What happened? What is so special about this coin?” “Jerald, all this years I’ve wanted to say something to you but I’ve been to wrapped up in my world that I have forgotten what is important in life.” “What is important in life?” With a smile Nadia stares at Jerald and says, “You”

-THE END-

Sit or Swing?

"Run.... deyh, run! Was pretty much what I heard every evening. Colour and grass was my frame, growing up in front of a playground. Be it praying for rain, just so the slide would turn into a lagoon ride or hoping, "5 more minutes ma" becomes an hour, the playground was where I found peace.

From the see-saw, to the twisted coloured slide and the monkey bars, there was something about them being placed on green grass that made it a haven of a play-pin. Add the "Swing" to the grass, and you have a "playground".

Nowadays coloured, was just a brown, faded piece of wood, attached to two long chains from the side that is hung from a horizontal bar, is the highlight of an otherwise colourful field. Close your eyes and try to imagine a playground without a swing?

The "Swing" is the simplest piece of machinery that draws the young and the old to the playground. The young usually jump in for a roller coaster "swing", measuring their level of competency with children their age. The old, walk in the playground and choose to "sit" on the swing, sometimes for hours. Usually to spy on their little ones, the playground has become a place to think for them as well.

Be it "sit" or "swing", the swing has an unconscious effect on us, regardless of our age. So next time you find yourself in a playground, "sit" or "swing" yourself, either way you are spellbound. 

Shashi@Wags