Ironically, Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano is said to be Obama's pick to head the US Department of Homeland Security, while Penny Pritzker is to be commerce secretary.

This is because the developing world accepted the concept of legally mandated proportional representation, at least when it comes to gender in politics, whereas in the west we see that as a "quota" and god forbid we should be forced to make sure our representative bodies actually represent us.

I think we've focused more on racial and religious proportion, unfortunately through gerrymandering. That said, I'd be interested to read what the barriers to women in public life are in the west. Is it because there are other professional outlets here that women have access to? For instance, what's the percentage of women middle and upper managers in business in these gender-equity paradises? What percentage of women as opposed to men graduate from high school or college? What are the relative poverty rates, or the average mortality? It's entirely possible that public office is the *only* outlet intelligent, motivated, educated women in these countries have, and coupled with laws mandating representation, that's where they go.

Yes we need more women in public office. But it's not the only measure of societal equity and tolerance. To say that the west is "behind" a place like Haiti is missing the forest for the trees.