Two weeks ago Britain was on its knees, with much of the population bewildered and the country facing bankruptcy after the surprise vote on June 23 to leave the European Union. On Wednesday a little known politician by the name of Theresa May made a deep curtsy before Queen Elizabeth at Buckingham Palace and then swept into the prime minister’s residence at 10 Downing Street.
Mrs May’s appointment to head the new government has settled the nerves of the nation, almost as if she was a latter-day Churchill in 1940. Much is expected of a woman who, although she has been at the heart of government for six years, has kept her cards very close to her chest.
She has played these cards masterfully and has risen to the top due to the simple fact that her rivals all self-destructed in quick succession.
The outgoing prime minister, David Cameron, was blinded by winning two elections into thinking that luck would see him through the Brexit referendum. When he lost the vote, he had to resign.
Boris Johnson, the former mayor of London who fronted the Leave campaign and helped secure its victory, bowed out of the race to be prime minister, not wishing to take on the responsibility of negotiating the terms of Brexit.
It is not surprising for the British that a woman is prime minister: they have lived with the Queen for 64 years and Margaret Thatcher blazed the trail in 1979. Some of the most powerful posts in Britain are held by women: Nicola Sturgeon, first minister of Scotland, and Arlene Foster, first minister of Northern Ireland.
Among those whom Mrs May will be negotiating the terms of Britain’s new relationship with Europe is Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, with whom she shares some characteristics. Both are daughters of Protestant churchmen, from whom they inherited a tradition of diligent public service. They are not gossipy or flashy.
Mrs May’s gender has become a talking point because she has proved to be the only grown-up in a field of adolescent males. The inevitable stereotype – of mother clearing up the mess after the teenage boys have trashed the home – not surprisingly infuriates feminists.
But the Brexit crisis illustrates some of the worst characteristics of male politicians. Two British newspapers reminded their readers after Mr Johnson’s announcement as foreign minister that his competitive spirit so outweighs other human impulses that he bulldozed a 10-year-old boy to the ground during a rugby game with schoolchildren in Japan.
The German philosopher Jürgen Habermas, one of Europe’s leading intellectuals, blamed the Brexit chaos on the failure of British elites, particularly “the two self-absorbed types of player known as Cameron and Johnson”. He is not alone is seeing the anti-EU revolt in the ruling Conservative party as a kind of elite boarding school game (both men went to Eton College) that got out of hand.
Some caution is required to counter the soft-focus view of female politicians righting the wrongs of the men. Margaret Thatcher began her term as prime minister by with the words: “Where there is discord, may we bring harmony … And where there is despair, may we bring hope.”
In reality, she went to war with Argentina and divided the country with her free market reforms, finally being evicted by her party after she became too divisive to be re-elected.
That does not change the fact that a new era of female power is dawning. In France, the National Front leader Marine Le Pen is the woman to beat in the presidential election of 2017. The United Nations seems almost certain to elect its first female secretary general.
By any normal logic, Hillary Clinton ought to be voted the first female president of the United States in November. In Donald Trump, she faces the archetype of boastful, sneering male adolescent whose popularity depends on saying what others dare not. Despite the fact that his policies seemed designed to unsettle the global balance of power and destroy the sources of US wealth and influence, he could still win.
This is partly due to the abiding distrust of Mrs Clinton among young American women. They are confident that a female president is inevitable so they do not feel obliged to vote for Mrs Clinton, trusting that a less establishment candidate will come along soon enough.
This year ought to be the one where female leadership becomes normal. But that is only part of the story.
In Britain, the opposition Labour Party is being torn apart by a leadership contest, where there is no alternative candidate to unite around. Female opponents of the current far-left leader, Jeremy Corbyn, have suffered a torrent of sexist abuse and threats of violence on social media and to their faces. This underlines that a quiet rise to the top, rather than the dramatic coup, is still the expected path to power for women, even in a so-called progressive party.
It remains to be seen how Mrs May can handle the task of negotiating Britain’s disengagement from the EU. Continuing the theme of the past three weeks – memorably described in the French newspaper Le Monde as “Monty Python meets Game of Thrones” – she has shocked the political class by appointing Mr Johnson as foreign secretary.
This is not as absurd as it appears. The grand title disguises the fact that he will continue what he did as London mayor and be a salesman for Britain, while being forced to take responsibility for failing to bring home the promises he made in the referendum.
Mrs May is surely aware that huge levels of disappointment – on both sides of the political divide – are likely to result from any deal to end Britain’s membership of the EU. But the simple fact is that the old boy network had run out of talent for such a task.
Alan Philps is a commentator on global affairs
On Twitter @aphilps