different roles but similar challenges

some thoughts on Takaichi and Mullally

Women earned leadership of two venerable bodies at the end of last week: one in Britain and the other across the globe in Tokyo. I acknowledge up front these two societies differ greatly.

Regardless of any other reactions you have to their elevation to the apex of their institutions or this column, please respect the tenacity each woman has. In 2025, I fear the sexual harassment and tendency to see everything in purely “because-she-is-a-woman-rather-than-someone-meriting-a-job-based-on-proven-skills-and-attributes” terms is no less common than what I saw it over my career between the late 1970s and early 2020s. If leadership is what we want in various places, tenacity is a characteristic worthy of appreciation.

Sarah Mullally, a knighted one-time nurse in the National Health Service, became a priest in 2006, twelve years after the Anglican Communion began ordaining women. Named Bishop of London seven years ago, Mullally’s anticipated formal elevation to the highest religious role (King Charles is titular head of the Faith) in January 2026 would close a year of vacancy for the highest clerical position within the Church of England. The last Archbishop, the Right Reverend Justin Welby, resigned over his inadequate prevention of a pedophile’s actions. The Church plays a tremendous historic role in Britain but has taken a backseat to the rest of society for roughly a century.

Thousands of miles to the east, Sanae Takaichi defeated the son of a popular former Prime Minister to head the overwhelmingly male Liberal Democratic Party in Japan. Labelled a hawk on foreign policy who also opposes expanded women’s roles across this relatively traditional society, Takaichi won election as a Member of the Diet more than three decades ago. Her political ally, if not mentor, was the late Shinzo Abe, who served as Prime Minister of Japan twice between 2006 and 2020. Takaichi admired the toughness of the late British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, whose policies upended Britain in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Yet one commentator argues Takaichi would hue to the toughest line to prove her “chops” within a wide array of LDP views.

Neither of these women will assume power without substantial pushback, if history provides any guide to human behavior. They are embarking on being “first among equals” in collective institutions rather than completely mistresses alone of their fate. A long string of Japanese Prime Ministers wearing the LDP banner could not satisfy a sufficient number of supporters to assure continued governance within the Party, much less the country. Justin Welby’s resignation in 2024, however, illustrated that, despite his gentle hand seeming to guide the Church easily for several years, pent up anger over disputes years in the making can undermine anyone’s tenure. Institutions built on communities demand accountability which dictators rarely confront.

Mullally’s Anglican Communion, like its Episcopalian cousins in the United States, underwent severe tension when the ordination of women first occurred. A cursory look at social media (to include the supposedly more liberal BlueSky) following the announcement regarding Mullally’s forthcoming assumption showed a surprising level of vitriol at the prospect of a woman leading the religious body. Indeed, the BBC reported Friday that “[T]he Global Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans, which represents conservative views, has criticised [sic] the appointment, saying that although some will welcome it, “the majority of the Anglican Communion still believes that the Bible requires a male-only episcopacy”.

A loyal subscriber of this column, a dear friend for more than forty-five years, left her church to become Roman Catholic because she did not believe the Bible advocated women in religious roles. We had a conversation in her living room in the summer of 1983, where my friend recounted that women had only minor roles in the Holy texts. I pointed out that women did not write the Bible, by all indications, but she held firm in her faith that the text is to be honored. I respect her views even though I do not share her skepticism about women’s roles.

The Roman Catholic church, of course, still refuses to accept women as priests, relegating them to lay positions within congregations in the United States and Europe while not even deploying them in such roles in more conservative places of Africa and Asia.

Politics and religion apparently are not that different in Japan, where women have made glacial advances in the ruling LDP over its 70-year existence. Politics in that dominant Party, bluntly, is a male sport, which is what makes Takaichi’s advance so interesting.

Yet her stance on so much of the heart of the Party’s platform is completely unchanged, as indicated by her statement last week. ”Now that the LDP has its first female president, its scenery will change a little”. She appears to oppose other women for leadership, let alone cabinet positions, in a nation struggling with a raft of problems. Women’s traditional roles as wives and mothers in Japan are stagnant, contributing to a birth rate among the lowest in the region, already plagued by declining population levels; only South Korea and the SAR of Hong Kong have lower rates in Northeast Asia.

Takaichi aspires to rejuvenate Japan’s defenses yet confronts a relatively uncomfortable environment. The future of the U.S.-Japan alliance is uncertain as Washington struggles to determine whether concerns about a menacing China outweigh fears in the Western Hemisphere; the differing opinions on whether Japan pays sufficiently for U.S. defense remain uncomfortable for both capitals.

Her views associated with seeming to dismiss responsibility for Japan’s aggression during World War II will, when she takes office, resurrect tension with the South Koreans over comfort women and colonialism, while raising latent anxiety about any reassertive Japan in Asia. Beijing will likely tolerate, if not stoke, national protests to remind the region of past sins.

If assuming power within their respective domains is so controversial, why is it occurring? Both the LDP as a party and the Anglican Communion confront two uncomfortable facts, although you, gentle readers, may correct me if I am misinterpreting them.

Both the LDP and the community of the faithful in Britain are showing signs of sclerosis; support is declining for those who have governed these institutions for so long. This decline is not merely generational, although that is true; it is also more structural.

I intended to note a recent opinion I saw on a “modest” religious revival in Britain, but never got to it with the press of other actions and consequences we have seen. According to The Wall Street Journal, early last month, a sustained increase in faith, particularly Christianity, was occurring across the United Kingdom, seemingly spurred by college students. The question of whether this might be merely an anecdotal increase, however, results from the continued decline in church attendance. What effect would having a female Archbishop play in that tale? Would a woman draw or detract from church attendance? We don’t know yet.

The Anglican Church’s problems with pedophilia, like those of the Catholic Church in the United States, have not contributed to enthusiasm for the institution. Men have held the highest positions over the centuries, though that alone may not necessarily create a cause-and-effect relationship leading to the problems. The move away from the church began a century ago, coinciding with the country undergoing deep doubts about its role in the world and growing optimism about the future. A church hierarchy that includes women might open doors to greater participation, or it might not. Time will tell whether the Anglican Church can regain its central role in the lives of many in Britain.

The LDP remains the dominant political Party in the Diet decades after beginning to rule post-war Japan. That nation underwent dramatic changes over those seven decades, including cultivating its economic prowess, reorienting its focus towards national defense, and expanding both educational and job opportunities for women previously limited by their gender. Yet, with those changes, Japan has confronted the same demographic declines, albeit at a more rapid pace, experienced by industrializing societies worldwide. Women are part of the challenges as their expectations change.

Will Sanae Takaichi or Sarah Mullally have unfettered success at the helm of the institutions they are embarking on leading? Time will tell, but few leaders of any gender can feel complete satisfaction upon departing their positions; the contemporary world is too complicated.

The bigger question to me is how, if at all, they will alter those institutions and the views held by the relevant populations? I wish them each success because I understand fully how hard it is to take the helm of institutions that have long been held by those who doubt that women can lead as effectively.

I suspect, instead, that we will continue to see some evolution in the shepherding of a political party and a religious community, but I doubt either will be revolutionary. Those who come from within are often incrementalists in nature; to have been otherwise would likely have prevented their rise altogether, because one of the most difficult human proclivities is inertia.

Yet both women assume the helm at a time when some demand radical change, whether to prevent the institution’s obsolescence, to right wrongs of prior leaders, or because change offers options for the future.

How will it turn out for either one? I cannot say for sure, as human variables are so profound in undermining “inevitabilities”.

The actions of their appointments, however, will have consequences, some of which will be almost immediate, while others will be far into the future. But Mullally and Takaichi are each a visible reminder of half of the population in their respective communities. Merely reminding ourselves that 50% of the community is a success not to be ignored. Too often, many women, at least, have felt that historic behavior.

I welcome your comments, as I suspect many of you have widely divergent thoughts. Actions is a column to consider the actions and consequences for the world in which we operate today and into the future, so please chime in.

I appreciate your time reading today’s thoughts and especially thank the subscribers to the column. Your actions have consequences every day.

It was a spectacular weekend for the powerboat show here in Annapolis, so on to the sailboats. Perhaps my favorite picture of the weekend was this fellow, moored off our balcony, taking his two yellow labs ashore to do their “do” early Sunday morning; they were back within ten minutes, then sailed off into the Bay.

Be well and be safe. FIN

Ming Gao, “Japan’s First Female Prime Minister Has to Be a Hard Liner”, ForeignPolicy.com, 2 October 2025, retrieved at https://foreignpolicy.com/2025/10/02/sanae-takaichi-japan-first-female-prime-minister/

Dan Hitchens, “Has Britain Stopped Secularizing?”, WSJ.com, 4 September 2025, retrieved at https://www.wsj.com/opinion/has-britain-stopped-secularizing-2b1aca65?st=THJQq6&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink&AID=15734583&PID=9042103&SID=mgf16aimof039xoz0023y&subid=Sovrn+Inc&cjevent=37d2d166a2a511f0832b02c20a82b821&tier_1=affiliate&tier_2=moa&tier_3=Sovrn+Inc&tier_4=2470763&tier_5=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.wsj.com%2Fopinion%2Fhas-britain-stopped-secularizing-2b1aca65%3Fst%3DTHJQq6%26reflink%3Ddesktopwebshare_permalink

Aleem Maqbool and Paul Gribben, “Sarah Mullally named as new Archbishop of Canterbury”, bbcnews.com, 3 October 2025, retrieved at https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c2lxyxqzxkdo

Associated Press, “Japan’s ruling party elects Sanae Tagaichi as new leader, likely to become first female PM”, Politico.com, 4 October 2025, retrieved at https://www.politico.com/news/2025/10/04/japan-takaichi-prime-minister-00594260

“Birth Rates by Country 2025”, worldpopulationreview.com, 6 October 2025, retrieved at https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/birth-rate-by-country