Sept. 22--When you're an outsider and get a gig that's traditionally held by people who don't look like you or come from your neck of the world, you might lead in a way that's more button-down so you don't bring more attention to yourself.
But once in a while you find a person who's bold and unafraid to stir the pot. Yes, I'm referring to one of the world's most high-profile of stirrers, Pope Francis.
On this day when the 266th pontiff graces our shores, I'd like to talk about the Francis Effect, the value of diversity and, although this might seem like a stretch, why it's time America elects its first female president. (Bear with me. I'll get there.)
I'm not Catholic, but I dig Pope Francis. I love it that while he's here, he wants to bring attention to income inequality and homelessness and that he's spent the last two years walking to the left of the church's old ideology.
He has focused on poverty, spoken out against the death penalty and has been quite vocal about the dispensation of mercy to gays, women who have had abortions and couples who have gotten divorced. He has also urged all of us to protect the planet.
He doesn't just talk the talk. He's eschewed the apostolic palace for a far more modest hotel room, prefers a blue Ford Focus to the papal limo and wears orthopedic shoes instead of the standard-issue red slippers.
Although Pope Francis hasn't gone far enough in dealing with the female priest issue or the priest sex abuse scandal, he's reinspired Catholics and non-Catholics alike who are looking for an alternative to leaders who have little or no empathy for the dispossessed and downtrodden.
Born Jorge Mario Bergoglio, this first Latin American pope grew up in a working-class home in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and worked briefly as a lab technician and bouncer at a nightclub. It's no wonder he views the world and its condition from a spot on a different hill.
People who have been called (or elected) to lead have to decide how much of a maverick they're going to be. How much they will (and even can) push against the parameters set by their predecessors. Certainly President Barack Obama, as the country's first black male head of state, has had to find his own mojo.
But, in this country, when it comes to occupying the highest office of the land, you can't be much more of an outsider or renegade than by being a woman.
That's why I'd really like to see a woman elected president. And not a woman who would lead as if she were a man, but one who'd take the helm with the strength and compassion, the grace and humility of a woman.
This isn't necessarily about a person who possesses a softer, gentler approach, but one who has a smarter, more effective approach.
It's what we saw two years ago when men shut down the U.S. government (which might happen again soon), and it took a bipartisan group of female senators to help reopen discussions between Republicans and Democrats, and thus reopen the government.
Women can bring a different sensibility to the fight, a unique type of moral courage.
I talked to Joyce Gelb, a professor emeritus at the City College of New York who has studied women in politics around the world. She said female chief executives have made a difference in some Asian counties on issues around violence, health and welfare, and those related to women and children.
"A woman might have different priorities," she said. "But certainly (the United Kingdom's late prime minister) Margaret Thatcher did not. Still, people who feel women do make a difference think they're more consultative, more inclusive and willing to negotiate and listen to other people's views."
Both Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and Republican candidate Carly Fiorina are tough leaders, and it's hard to evaluate the type of chief executive either would be.
What's clear is that it's time for a different brand of boldness, a type of leader who steps outside the orthodoxy of the old boy's club. Yes, men have been known to do that, such as the aforementioned one who gave up the papal red slippers. I just think it's time for a president who challenges the status quo and does it in heels.
dmturner@tribpub.com
