a new prime minister for australia

i heard the news this morning ,at first thought it was some sort of joke,but it's for real. julia gillard is our first female prime minister, good luck to her, now we need to get over the first female thing and focus on her performance.
do you think it makes a difference weather our leaders are male or female ?[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

I think the main thing that makes a difference is a persons intentions... female or male.
People say women and men look at things differently, handle things differently, etc... I find many women are just like men and it has a lot to do with character of each person.. not so much being female or male.

Hi, Rox!
I know nothing about Ms. Gillard, but in general?
Yeah. I think it makes a LOT of difference
whether someone is male or female.
Different experiences;sometimes almost completely different.
It's what I count on when / if I vote for a woman.

There would be a much bigger advantage to having a woman in
a position of power if it weren't for the "Old Boy Network" and they'd
just GROW UP and let the best PERSON win... as it is -and politics
being what it is- I think we get a much different version of the person
than they were when they started out - both men and women.

Women have a much keener killer-instinct I think - and use better
judgement about when to use it.
I seriously doubt too many women would find it necessary to kill
children over a scrap of land, nor would they ignore the abuse of a
people for expediency.
In general women tend to value PEOPLE more and appearance less.

it would be interesting to reserch women leaders world wide and see in what way they rule different from men.margaret thatcher aparently was pretty tough and they called her the iron pettycoat .i think to get to that position a woman needs to be more ruthless than one who runs a more 'normal' life.'

Golda Meir, Indira Gandhi, Queen Julianna... ?
Completely different styles there...
Maybe the conditions where and where they govern dictate
a lot of it... and male chauvinism dictates a good bit too.
The stronger the bias - the tougher the female, perhaps?