Chile shocked the world this week by electing their first woman president. Michelle Bachelet is a pediatrician and single mother of three, and with 53% of the votes in her favor she became only the second woman elected to head a South American nation (Janet Jagan was chosen to succeed her husband as president of Guyana in 1997 after his death). Ms Bachelet has already made some strong pledges to her country, including helping women have a stronger voice, and promising to bridge the gap between the rich and poor. This was Chile’s fourth election after their return to democracy in 1990, ending 17 grueling years of military rule.

Liberia also swore in a female leader this week! Ellen Johnson Sirleaf became Africa’s first elected female president. The world is changing, according to the female author of this article, and women leaders are bringing new skills to the table: “The modern world, if it is to be sane, is going to have to be much more of a woman’s world than a man’s. The operative words today are not kill, but negotiate; not hate, but understand; not riot, but institutionalize.”

Where does the United States stand amidst this swirling tide of growth and change in the world’s elected leaders? Some speculate that as one of the world’s longest-running democracies, perhaps the answer lies in “social constructs that have been embedded in the nation’s very fabric.” Whatever the reason, I think that America is past due for a change in the way we think about our elected leaders. Our country could only benefit from breaking away from the traditional white Christian male authority. Several countries have not only broken ground by electing their first female leader in the past fifteen years, but they have continued the trend; New Zealand, Bangledesh, Ireland, The Phillipines, Lithuania, São Tomé and Príncipe, and Finland have all elected two women as president so far, and Sri Lanka has had three women leaders, two of them serving as Prime Minister, and one as President.

Laura A. Liswood, the co-founder and secretary-general of the Council of Women World Leaders, has made it a personal mission to get a woman in the oval office. She believes that there are several main problems preventing America from electing a woman as president. According to her, the two-party, “winner-take-all” system does not work for out-of-power groups, which includes women. The United States is also the only country that requires an enormous amount of cash to finance an election, which is another obstacle to those outside of the power structure.

Ms Liswood believes that “women must play an integral role in all the world’s issues or else humanity’s challenges will never be solved.” I agree wholeheartedly. Not only are women as fully capable of taking a leadership role as their male counterparts, but I think that our gender can add a much needed dimension of caring and softness to the role of president. A woman thinks differently, approaches problems differently, and applies solutions differently. Gerald Ford is rumored to have said that America will only have a woman president after a woman becomes vice president, and then succeeds a male president who dies in office. Ford said that once that happens, we’ll never have another male president again. Imagine that!