By Mar-Vic Cagurangan
Variety News Staff

A FRIEND of mine asked me this question a couple of months ago: “How come Filipino women are known for being ‘subservient,’ yet the Philippines has had two women presidents?”
To fill the other half of the irony, I twisted the question: “America gave birth to the feminist movement and it gives so much deal about equality and gender sensitivity. So why is America still dealing with the question of whether or not Americans are ready for a female president?”
Filipinos never had to deal with that question when the 1986 people power revolution brought Cory Aquino, widow of the assassinated opposition leader Ninoy Aquino, to the presidency. She survived a dozen coup attempts.
Neither was the issue raised when the 2001 uprising against Joseph Estrada accidentally moved Gloria Macapagal Arroyo up to the top political position. She found herself in trouble only when she cheated her way to the presidency in the subsequent election. In either case, the Filipinos embraced both female presidents without giving so much fuss about the gender issue.
Such paradox exists not only in the Philippines but in most Asian countries, where men are still supposed to be wearing the pants. Yet here’s where you find female presidents and prime ministers: e.g. Indonesia had Megawatti Sukarnoputri; Pakistan had Benazir Bhutto; India had Indira Ghandi; Burma’s political opposition is led by Aung San Syu Kyii.
When San Francisco Democrat Nancy Pelosi took the helm of the leadership of the U.S. House of Representatives, the event entailed a “historic celebration” for her crashing through a glass ceiling that, for a long time, no female member of the U.S. Congress ever cracked. Better late than never. But then, there was so much fuss about whether or not Congress was ready to be led by a female.
When New York Democrat Hillary Clinton launched her bid as the Democratic Party’s frontrunner in the presidential race, the first question asked of her was: “Will your husband be part of the decision-making process?” To which, Mrs. Clinton replied with full conviction: “I will be the decision maker.” (Read: “His time is up. I am the boss.”)
So now the question has been tossed back to the American people through surveys asking: “Are we ready for a female president?”
Are we? Are they?
Isn’t Condoleeza Rice the woman behind President Bush? (Get the malice out of your head. That’s not what I meant.)
When the possibility of a Condee-Hillary match-up first came into the picture three years ago, two polls were released. The first, conducted by the Siena College Research Institute and sponsored by the Hearst Newspapers, found that 81 percent of voters surveyed would vote for a woman for president; 62 percent (6 out of 10) said the country is ready for a woman president; and 67 percent said a female president would be better than a male chief executive in handling domestic issues such as health and education.
A separate survey, conducted by pollster Scott Rasmussen in the same year, was published by the New York Post, which ran the headline: “Maybe America isn’t ready for a female president after all.”
Victoria Woodhull, a stockbroker and publisher, became the first woman to run for U.S. president as the candidate of the Equal Rights Party in 1872. Ulysses S. Grant won, causing Woodhull to state: “What may appear absurd today will assume a serious aspect tomorrow. I am content to wait until my claim for recognition as a candidate shall receive the calm consideration of the press and the public.”
It is now more than 100 years later and, while a woman’s claim for recognition as a candidate for presidency receives much more “calm consideration” than in 1872, it is, strangely, still at the stage of consideration.
But again, on this side of the world, men seem to be willing to recognize “who’s the real boss.” Just ask Lt. Gov. Mike Cruz.
Dr. Cruz calls his wife Jen, who is a nursing supervisor at the Guam Memorial Hospital. At the time of the phone call, Jen is in a meeting with GMH administrator PeterJohn Camacho. So she tells him: “I can’t talk to you right now because I’m talking to my boss.” Dr. Cruz playfully teases her: “Tell your boss that you are talking to his boss.” But Jen outwits her boss’s boss: “Well, you are talking to your boss.”  
(Send feedback to marvic@mvguam.com)