Where were the women at the health-care summit?

If more women were in the room, might the debate have been different? If there were more women in Congress (which is around 17 percent female), might our politics be less rancorous and might our elected officials get more accomplished? There’s a school of thought that is emerging that suggests the answer is yes…

To be sure, there are plenty of men in leadership who are willing to negotiate and who work for peace. And if women rise to political power around the world, there will be more examples of them becoming autocratic leaders. But even while the study of women’s roles in government is still a relatively new discipline, and even though much of the evidence is anecdotal, a lot of this does make common sense. Think of the women protesting in the streets of Tehran. Think of the women risking their lives to study in Afghanistan. Think of the poor girls sold into sexual slavery in Southeast Asia. Few would argue that the world would be a better place if women like these, and countless others around the globe, had more power.