Letters: History is filled with strong female leaders

So, letter writer Felicia Trout believes that “women lack all that goes with” the job of president (“Women not suited to be president,” Oct. 20).

Let’s think: Golda Meir served as minister to the Soviet Union, labor minister and then prime minister of Israel from 1969 to 1974, leading Israel through the Yom Kippur War; hardly a weakling. Then there was Indira Gandhi, prime minister of India from 1966 to 1977 and 1980 to 1984, who oversaw the victory over Pakistan that led to the creation of Bangladesh. Or Margaret Thatcher, the United Kingdom’s Iron Lady, who served from 1979 to 1990, and was so ill-prepared to govern that she led the defeat of Argentina in the Falklands War and was Britain’s longest-serving prime minister in the 20th century.

This is not to mention the millions of women who have sustained the human race through the millennia by bearing and rearing children, mostly while working to put food on the table and roofs over heads. Perhaps Ms. Trout feels that she lacks all that goes with the job, but she doesn’t speak for me or my daughters, for Hillary Clinton or for any of the other successful, strong, even “nasty” women who’ve served as leaders of their countries and are prepared to lead this one.

This story was originally published October 29, 2016 at 2:00 PM with the headline "Letters: History is filled with strong female leaders."