The first female Prime Minister of Barbados has claimed that women make better leaders than men because they are more caring’ and run their country ‘like a family household’
Barbadian politician Mia Mottley, 54, appeared on Good Morning Britain today with former Prime Minister of Denmark, Helle Thorning-Schmidt and the former Prime Minister of Australia, Julia Gillard to debate on better leadership between men and women.
‘I think the issue is more really how women operate in terms of caring,’ said Mia. ‘And in many instances, we treat issues how we would treat the household and the family.
‘Not in a negative way, in a way that recognises unless you drill down to things and see where you are in respect to how people are operating, and recognise how people are feeling and listening to you, you cannot change behaviour.
‘In this circumstance, it’s behaviour that can contain the virus, these things tend to reflect more because we will pause and not just look at it academically, but think how will it impact the people who are hurting.’
When quizzed on whether she felt her views were sexist, Mottley said she simply wants ‘the attributes women bring to public office’ celebrated.
I don’t think [it is sexist]. I think in households women negotiate in everything we do everyday.
‘Women also have to cooperate with men and we get that, so it gives us a complete picture, and I try not to use the sexist prism. But I want us to understand the attributes women bring to public office do make a difference.’
Helle, 53, also claimed that male leaders such as Boris Johnson and Donald Trump have ‘failed’ because they didn’t have a ‘good cocktail of decision making.’
According to her, Theresa May would have done a ‘better job’ than Johnson.
‘On this question of whether female leaders have done better in the crisis,’ said Helle, ‘I don’t know if that is true.
‘But what I do know when we see the strong men like Trump and to some extent Johnson and we see why they failed. That is because they didn’t have a good cocktail of decision making.’
She added: ‘I actually think Theresa may would have handled it better than Boris Johnson, but it’s not too hard to handle something better than him – I think anyone could have done it.’
