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It was a real honour to be part of a tremendous panel at Swansea University last week.

The event was called Gutsy Welsh Women.

Now, Ive been called a lot of things in my life and this is one of the kindest, so Im certainly not going to complain about the gutsy label.

The gusty women on the platform included the Welsh Government education minister Kirsty Williams, who recalled the young girl from Carmarthenshire who joined the Liberal Democrats at 15, was one of the first intake of AMs in 1999 and rose to become party leader and a government minister.

Also, the indomitable lawyer and academic Professor Elwen Evans, who led the prosecution in the April Jones murder case and the defence in the Gleision mine disaster case. Elwen talked about her early years at the bar when she was told by a senior male colleague that women were good for just two things in life. Yes, honestly...

But this panel was no feminist moan fest. I hope its not immodest to say that all four panel members have managed to carve out successful careers, despite the deep-seated sexism and entrenched misogyny that poisons most sectors, from sport to law to politics.

It struck me that we all said rather similar things about our career paths and the role models who had influenced us. We talked about the self-belief that our families had given us as small girls that, in turn, instilled in us the ambition and confidence to follow our dreams.

The football-mad young girl growing up in Bridgend never dreamt she would captain her country for the simple reason that there was no recognised womens international team at the time.

Meanwhile, the wait goes on for a woman President and a female First Minister. The truth is, in seeking to achieve our goals, women have had to campaign to create or change the structures constructed by and for men. Thats simply not true for most boys and men.

Of course, it was Hillary Rodham Clinton, lawyer, senator, defeated US presidential candidate, gender and human rights campaigner, who was the magnet for the huge crowd in Swansea Bay last week.

Now, Hillary (it seems right to use her first name here, given the warmth and genuine interest and regard she displayed for the people she met there) isnt everyones cup of tea and thats an under-statement! In the current climate, it hardly needs saying that most prominent politicians divide opinion pretty starkly.

But Hillary is in a different league. Shes admired, adored and revered by plenty, positively reviled, abused and detested by others. Im less interested in the claims and counter-claims of what she did or didnt do.

The political power game is a filthy, brutal business, as we have witnessed everywhere these past three years. And we are in no position to slate US politics. We might be on the brink of electing a prime minister whose comments and behaviour would have seen him summarily dismissed from many workplaces. People, stones, glass houses?

Whats more interesting for me is trying to assess how Hillary Clinton has been treated compared to men who have trod similar paths in public life. In a recent In Conversation with former Australian Prime Minister and Barry girl Julia Gillard, she described the very narrow path that women leaders are expected to tread.

This means a very delicate balancing act - stray too widely off the path and a woman will be accused of overambition, arrogance and abrasiveness. Stick too narrowly to the centre of the path and she is stale, uninspiring and unsuited to leadership. Wow, that 2016 presidential path must have felt like a tightrope over the Grand Canyon for Senator Clinton and all with hungry sharks prowling underneath.

Up against a gigantic, puffed-up, ultra-alpha male with limited political experience, a big mouth and multiple allegations of wandering hands to his name, its hardly surprising that Hillarys navigation of the route to the top was dissected so brutally.

I watched again the video of Trump physically stalking Clinton on stage in that notorious presidential TV debate. That has to be one of the weirdest and most disturbing things Ive ever observed in modern politics. Even scarier was that the behaviour seemed not to have been denounced by everyone. Apparently, the US public was evenly split as to who won that debate.

So, clearly, these are the new operating rules of the political game. But there is a very thin line between that kind of posturing intimidation and much more sinister types.

There was lots that resonated in the Gusty Women panel.

Hillary talked about the tightly-restricted expectations of women in power. This is a wholly one-dimensional DNA, an uncomfortable straitjacket for how women should behave, how we should speak, how we should relate to the men already there.

It doesnt take a genius to work out this is deliberate - a way of conditioning and controlling women. Regrettably, in my experience, its also a strategy that some women have bought into. Behaving in public office like an emotional IQ-deprived man or pulling up the ladder behind us feels even more unforgivable when it comes from a female leader.

Hillary talked about the influence of her family, many of whom on both sides came from Wales, and especially how there had been a huge focus on education that she felt came from her mothers lack of schooling.

In these increasingly troubled times, education is our only hope as far as I can see. Id be happy to see an Assembly election in 2021 that focuses entirely on schools and how to better invest in and improve them. Surely this is our best strategy for a better future, where theres a chance of creating the rounded, critical, engaged, healthy, active, interested citizens of the future who vote, who can dissect fake news and political lies, and who can challenge authority and power.

Hillary also talked about the importance of basic values like respect, empathy, kindness and compassion. All of this is blindingly obvious and sounds a little trite, but these are fundamentals for good leadership, especially in divided times.

Its very easy to spout good words from a platform, much harder to walk the walk. Its a rudimentary and impressionistic measurement, of course, but what I liked best about Hillary Clinton was that she displayed these human values in spades as she engaged with the students, staff and guests at Swansea.

So whatever you think of her (to be honest, in a week when we qualified for our second successive European championships, her comment that her election campaign slogan stronger together was a secret tribute to the Welsh football team would have been enough for me!), Hillary Clinton is the ultimate gutsy woman.

Since that panel discussion, Ive reflected on why Hillary generates such strong feelings (affection and admiration, but anger and abuse in equal measure). Ive tried to be as dispassionate and objective as anyone can be in my assessment but, you know, to paraphrase Ali G, I think its because she is a woman.

Develop resilience and do what you have to do when you have to do it, Hillary told the audience.

Thats revealing as, while its what most of us have had to do to be successful in our fields, its still a million times more acceptable a behaviour code for men than it is for women.

Three years ago, Hillary Rodham Clinton was on the brink of breaking the highest, thickest, toughest political glass ceiling there is. And there lies the problem. Gutsy women are tolerated when they toe the line, know their limits, stay firmly on that narrow path and dont get above their station.

Hillary didnt heed this advice and tried to break out of the gender straitjacket and look what happened. But that absolutely mustnt stop us from encouraging other girls and women to follow in her footsteps if we are to ultimately widen that path to power.

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Read more from the original source:
Breaking out of the gender straitjacket: Hillary Clinton gives a masterclass on women and power - Wales Online