The influence of female leaders

While still arguing that there's some evidence that female politicians at the local level produce results, the author of Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide said the following in a recent blog post:

overall, we found no correlation between a female president or prime minister and any improvements in girls’ education or maternal health or any other improvement in the status of women.

Similarly, while some argue that having female leaders means that countries are less likely to go to war seems more complicated. It's to the female politicians that the current U.S. invasion of engagement in kinetic action in Libya has generally been attributed. To quote a recent Foreign Policy article entitled Iron Ladies: Why women leaders aren't the peaceniks you think:

these days, the old stereotype that women are more dovish than men is much less evident ... Women legislators remain less likely to send troops off to war than their male counterparts, but female chief executives and cabinet ministers are now more hawkish than men

Remember just because they might not be directly engaged in fighting doesn't mean that women can't promote and encourage further warfare.