# No woman president, religious reasons?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-woman-president-religious-reasons/334872>\
**Category:** Great Debates\
**Created:** [December 9, 2005, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-woman-president-religious-reasons/334872 "2005-12-09T13:54:47Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![OliverTwistofLime](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/b487fb/32.png) [@OliverTwistofLime](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OliverTwistofLime)\
**Post date:** [December 25, 2005, 10:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-woman-president-religious-reasons/334872/21 "2005-12-25T10:11:53Z")

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Religion has little basis for choosing a woman to lead the country. I personally agree that post menopausal women would make great leaders and presidents of the USA.

My fears lie with my observations in everyday life and as an ob/gyn that so many bright, mature women are influenced by their hormones resulting in decision making that may not accurately reflect the female president’s decision at other times.

Okay, shoot me down. I’m ready.

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**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\
**Post date:** [December 25, 2005, 10:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-woman-president-religious-reasons/334872/22 "2005-12-25T10:23:51Z")

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> [@OToL](#):
>
> My fears lie with my observations in everyday life and as an ob/gyn that so many bright, mature women are influenced by their hormones resulting in decision making that may not accurately reflect the female president’s decision at other times.

Is it only female hormones that can lead to bad or anomalous decision-making, though? There certainly appears to be some evidence that [male hormones can be bad for leadership capabilities](http://www.copernicusmarketing.com/about/docs/press4.htm) as well:

> [@](#):
>
> “The Testosterone Rush: A Study of Senior Marketing Executives’ Decision-Making & Management Styles” found that most marketing decisions are rushed, rely on little research, and focus on short-term results. These decision-making patterns were found to be significantly more characteristic of male senior marketing executives than of female senior marketing executives. […]
> 
> " ‘Testosterone decision-making’ is no doubt a key reason why the average marketing program today is delivering disappointing, unprofitable results," continues Clancy. “Not only is the decision-making process faulty, but it also appears that men are too focused on quickly making the ‘big’ decisions and not paying enough attention to implementation. Even the best marketing strategies will fail without sound, thorough implementation plans and practices.”

We shouldn’t discount the possibility that premenopausal female hormonal cycles could be problematic in a leader. But we shouldn’t automatically assume that males are the natural control group for good leadership performance, either.

Maybe we’ve just been accepting male hormone-related performance problems as “the norm” because society traditionally views men as leaders, without really evaluating whether they actually do a better job than premenopausal women.

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**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\
**Post date:** [December 25, 2005, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-woman-president-religious-reasons/334872/23 "2005-12-25T13:55:57Z")

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> [@jsgoddess](#):
>
> One thing that stands out when you look at the US is the level of religiousness compared with most other 1st world countries.

What is the level of religiousness in the US compared to most other 1st world countries? Have any cites? I infer that you are saying that the US has a higher level then other, but your statement can be taken the other way also (one that I would be more willing to accept on face value).

> [@Kimstu](#):
>
> Maybe we’ve just been accepting male hormone-related performance problems as “the norm” because society traditionally views men as leaders, without really evaluating whether they actually do a better job than premenopausal women.

Or we know about men’s patterns and we know that they mainly work, a woman’s patterns might still be a unknown and might seem like a unaccetable risk.

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