Britain’s Next Prime Minister Will Be a Woman

Meet the next leader of the British Parliament.
Meet the next leader of the British Parliament. Photo: Getty Images

Britain has been in something of a leadership crisis following the whole Brexit thing. First, Prime Minister David Cameron effectively ran away from the mess he created, and then Boris Johnson, who everyone assumed would step in to fill his place, didn’t. So the British Conservative Party (the party currently in power) held formal elections, and on Tuesday the field narrowed to two candidates: Home Secretary Theresa May and Energy Minister Andrea Leadsom. In other words, the next British prime minister will definitely be a woman.

Leadsom is relatively unknown compared to May, and she’s never served in the cabinet, which is normally a prerequisite for holding the office of prime minister, according to the Washington Post. May lost no time pointing out Leadsom’s relative lack of experience, saying Britain needs “strong, proven leadership to negotiate the best deal … as we leave the European Union, and to make Britain a country that works not for a privileged few but for every one of us.”

The two candidates were on opposite sides of the Brexit debate, with Leadsom emerging as a leader for “Leave” and May firmly in the “Remain” camp. But both have agreed that Britain will eventually leave the European Union, although they differ on when exactly that will happen (May says not before the end of the year, while Leadsom’s position is that “we need to get on with it”).

Both candidates will now hit the campaign trail, where they’ll hope to sway British voters — whoever wins out will be the first female PM since Margaret Thatcher was elected in 1979. So, yes, women really are taking over the world.