Urbanology

from Brooklyn Community Newspapers | March 11, 2021

Community

By: W.A.Rogers

As we celebrate Women’s History Month I thought it was important to list the 23 women that are either Presidents or Prime Ministers of their countries and if you include the newly elected United States Vice President Kamala Harris we now have 24 women who were elected to top leadership positions in their governments throughout the world.

This list may surprise you I know it was a surprise to me the list of female government leaders are: Kersti Kaljulaid, President of Estonia, Angela Merkel, Chancellor of Germany, Sheikh Hassina Wajed, Prime Minister (PM) of Banladish, Erna Solberg, PM of Norway, Nicola Sturgeon, First Minister of Scotland, Bidhya Devi Bhandari, President of Nepal, Saara Kuugongelwa, PM of Namibia, Mette Frederiksen, PM of Denmark, Tsai Lng-Wen, President of Taiwan.

Ana Brnabic, PM of Serbia, Halimah Jakob, President of Singapore, Jacinda Ardern PM of New Zealand, Katrin Jakobsdottir, PM of Iceland, Sahle Work-Zewde President of Ethiopia, Salome Zourabichvii PM of Georgia, Mia Mottley, PM of Barbados, Paula-Mae Weekes, President of Trinidad & Tobago, Sanna Marin PM of Finland, Zuzana Caputova, President of Slovakia, Maia Sandu President of Moldovia, Katerina Sakellaropoulou, President of Greece, Lngrida Simonyte, PM of Lithuania and Rose Christiana Raponda PM of Gabon Africa.

This list of female leaders was sent to me in a beautiful video presentation by my good friend Eugenia Foxworth, President of Foxworth Realty. Eugenia is making history herself on May 1st she will be sworn in as the first African American women president of the International Real Estate Federation (FIABCI) USA. The 70-year-old organization has chapters in 65 countries and is an ECOSOC with the United Nations.

I will interview Eugenia on my Urbanology Show on Tuesday March 16th at 4:00 PM you will be able to watch the live interview on the Harlem Tourism Boards Facebook page at www.facebook.com/harlemtourismboard.

I believe this list of outstanding female leaders should not only be an inspiration for young women, but it should be a wake-up call to many men in this country that feel that women are not as capable as males to govern a country. The list also shows how much catching up America must do regarding male chauvinistic attitudes towards female leadership in the workplace and in government. An attitude which seems to be slowly changing.

As we continue to celebrate Women’s History Month, we must remember the history of Female leadership can be traced as far back as early Kemet (Egypt) when Queen Hatshepsut 1479 to 1458 BC. was the lonest reigni ng female Pharaoh in history and the most powerful female ruler in the world at that time.

During her reign Hatshepsut created the concept of Sacred Commerce, business practices that used spirituality as a foundation for business transactions; People, Planet, Profit and Spirituality was it’s code. A merchant priesthood was developed to educate merchants through out Kemet and beyond. This was a golden period for the country.

The Sacred Commerce concept is still with us I have the People, Planet, Profit and Spirituality code on the back of my Onuwon Wellness Group business cards. Like Black History Month we should not need a Women’s History Month to remind us of the many contributions that Black people and women make to improve the quality of life in our society every day.