Can female leaders end the world's violent conflicts?

Violent conflict is on the rise despite efforts to control it. The tragedy of September 11 could be just the tip of the iceberg. Other types of violence include civil wars, poverty and aggression against women and children.

Male leadership paradigms have been unable to control, or even reduce violence worldwide. So it's time for women to take the lead in rooting out and addressing its causes, according to Dr. Jennifer Turpin, professor of sociology and dean of the college of arts and sciences at the University of San Francisco.

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She was the keynoter discussing "Transforming Conflict: Women's Ways of Leading," at the 2004 Women's Leadership Symposium at Mount Mary College WI in March.

Link between violence and power

Turpin's research interests are violence and its relationship to the distribution of power. "Everything I know about leadership comes from my experiences in Texas and California--George Bush and Arnold Schwartzenegger," she joked. "Actually, they are the epitome of what I don't want to recommend as leadership in America." The goal of leadership is not to make us feel better, but to make us be better.

She said the world is facing a global crisis identified by three symptoms: war, global poverty and environmental destruction. The three are increasingly interrelated and linked, feeding on each other and caused by the wrong kind of leadership. They are also gendered, affecting women and men differently and evoking gendered patterns of responses.