In Hillary's hands - or not?

I think that she will have to prove herself to them more than a man would have to. The other thing to consider would be that they would by pass her and deal with Former President Clinton. She has to be careful or she could fall into the trap using Bill to help and in effect some would see that as he is the power. Toward the end of President Nixon's administration Kissinger and Westmorland were seen as the people to deal with.

That's a great question! I think they probably will do business with her to some extent out of respect for the office/position, rather than just ignoring her, but I don't think they will take her as seriously or deal with her nearly in the same way they would a man. She'll certainly have to have a very strong, male Secretary of State to handle those situations. If they can hate the United States any more than they do, I think they will if we elect a female president. In my opinion.

I don't think this is a problem, as other countries have had female leaders. I'm more considered with how the leader handles the situation, as a good leader should be able to lead no matter what country we are talking about now.

Yup! These Muslim men will treat Hillary with the respect she deserves because she will be (as President) a World Power. These radical muslims know better than to downplay women, but they can get away with it, and they do. These same radicals are no worse than Joseph Ratzinger the 265th reigning Pope of the Holy Catholic Church who refuses to acknowledge the right of women to be ordained as Priests even tho the Church is getting desperate for new blood in the Ministry.

That's an interesting and poignant question Coffebreak. Will the third world male dominated countries deal with Hillary? Did they with Margret Thatcher? Interesting.

it's an interesting question, but don't forget a third world male dominated country such as india elected it's first female prime minister (indira gandhi) more than 40 years ago. so in a way the US is the less progressive country in that aspect. also, condoleezza rice has been having diplomatic relations with all these countries for the past three years as secretary of state. so i think really anything is possible.

Wouldn't be a problem. We had Margaret Thatcher as our prime minister for 11 years and no-one refused to talk or do business with us because she was a woman. Numerous other countries also have had or currently have female leaders and there doesn't seem to be a problem for them either. What matters most is how strong a leader is, not whether it's a man or woman. Thatcher was a tough cookie and I suspect Hillary Clinton would be the same.

I don't think it will be a problem at all. The most repressive country towards women is Saudi Arabia, and they dealt fine with Margaret Thatcher when she was Prime Minister of the UK, rolling out the red carpet for her when she made her state visit. As for other Muslim countries, believe it or not, quite a few are ahead of the USA in electing women leaders. eg Pakistan elected Benazir Bhutto in the 1990's, Bangladesh had a female prime minister, so did Indonesia and Turkey. These countries were all influenced by their local superpower, India, which elected Indira Gandhi in the 1970's - as soon as India elected a female leader, the others followed suit within a few decades. As for Europe, we are quite used to female leaders - The UK has had female prime mionister (Mrs Thatcher), France had a female prime minister (Edith Cresson), so has Norway, Portugal (back in the 1980's), Ukraine and Iceland. Germany is currently run by a woman, Angela Merkel. And in South America, Chile is run by a woman. So the USA has been quite backward on this issue. To be honest many of us in the rest of the world were wondering if it was down to some sort of Christian fundamentalism similar to the muslim fundamentalism in Saudi. I hope you elect Mrs Clinton - welcome to the modern world!