Throughout history, women in power have used a rationale similar to men’s to send men to death with similar frequency and in similar numbers. For example, the drink Bloody Mary was named after Mary Tudor (Queen Mary I), who burned 300 Protestants at the stake, when Henry VUI’s daughter, Elizabeth I, ascended to the throne, she mercilessly raped, burned and pillaged Ireland at a time when Ireland was called the Isle of Saints and Scholars When a Roman king died, his widow sent 80,000 men to their deaths.29 If Columbus was an exploiter, we must remember that Queen Isabella helped to send him.
In recent years, the so-called Iron Ladies — Indira Gandhi, Golda Meir, and Margaret Thatcher — have all sent men to their deaths at rates not dissimilar to those of the average male leader, and in wars as wasteful to male life as Thatcher s involvement in the Falkland Islands War.
What has remained consistent throughout history is that whether or not the leaders were female or male, almost 100 percent of the troops they sacrificed in battle were male.* When women led, it was still men left dead. Equality was at the top — not at the bottom.