# Africa gets its first female president before the US **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [January 13, 2006, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/africa-gets-its-first-female-president-before-the-us/339897 "2006-01-13T23:43:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![grey\_ideas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/dfb087/32.png) [@grey\_ideas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grey_ideas)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2006, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/africa-gets-its-first-female-president-before-the-us/339897/61 "2006-01-17T15:19:24Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > The USA\* hasn’t \*had any female governors? 😕 > > **zahara2** Why? California has a population ten times that of Liberia- fact. It’s economy is many _many_ times that. The land area is nearly 4 times as much. California would be the 6th most powerful nation in the world if it was a nation rather than a state. Ask a Foriegner (non-North American or Non-African) who is the President of Liberia and who is the Governor of California- see how many more get CA right. > > Like I said- Africa has around 55 nations, which VERY roughly corresponds to the 50 states of America in terms of number of chances to elect a chief executive. (Hmm, it seems that the USA has had more female Governors than “Africa” has had female Heads of State). > > I am sure Liberia’s president has a tough job, and I respect that. But if one _can_ compare the job of Chief Executive of a political enity, then some of those postitions are less/more important than others, like it or not. Being President of the USA thus “means more” than Prime Minister of Tuvalu. For that matter, I’d cheerfully concede that being President of Liberia “means more” than President of the Seychelles. Or- Governor of North Dakota. Liberia is one of the more important African nations, sure. I’m just curious **DrDeth** , from your logic above, does it follow that President Hu Jintao (China) and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh (India) are _more important_ than President Bush? Their GDP’s may be lower (numbers 2 and 4 on the list for China and India respectively) but they do have a far, far higher population to look after than in the US (just to pick a couple of indicators that you highlighted). I just think it’s daft to try and say that one countries leader is ‘less important’ than another. The issues that a leader of a large country and a small country has to face might be just as complex when you take into account things like, for example, the leader of a large country has a well established political infrastructure behind them to deal with the complex and demanding issues whereas a smaller country may not have this framework in place to aid the head of state. grey\_ideas ---
**Author:** ![Love\_Rhombus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/love_rhombus/32/10694_2.png) [@Love\_Rhombus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Love_Rhombus)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2006, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/africa-gets-its-first-female-president-before-the-us/339897/62 "2006-01-17T17:53:20Z")
> [@Beware of Doug](#): > > I give you [Vaira Vike-Freiberga](http://www.president.lv/), former Canadian refugee and President of Latvia since 1999. > > Also, there was a woman Norwegian PM and at least one Finnish one, possibly two, during the past ten years. I think there might have been a Lithuanian as well. Can somebody help me out with names here? People in these countries have some seriously weird names. What, did they kick out Dr. Doom? Why wasn’t I notified? 😃 I’d say the President of Liberia is easily more important than a US Governor. More responsiblity, no centralized federal government to ask for help…more power and more problems. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2006, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/africa-gets-its-first-female-president-before-the-us/339897/63 "2006-01-17T18:02:53Z")
By the same logic, Shri T.V. Rajeswar, the governor of Uttar Pradesh, is getting on for “as important” as the POTUS, since that state currently has upwards of 166 million people. But I don’t think so. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/africa-gets-its-first-female-president-before-the-us/339897.md?page=3)