No easy solutions here. If we choose quotas, we risk choosing less than meritorious candidates?

Here's my solution as a local solution. Double the current size of all electorates then oblige the contesting political parties to select two candidates, via the grass roots, based exclusively om merit. One male and one female, per doubled electorate.

Then allow the voters to decide based on how well both the chosen candidates argue the merits of their proffered policies. And should one party win, then both candidates progress!
Alan B.

Well thank god for small mercies. We could have the world in an even greater mess by having more woman in power.

We could like Germany be having to ask people to use less power because governments led by ladies like Dorothea Merkel had led their power industry into failure by doing what FELT right.

Or we could have a girls club like Queensland led by Annastacia Palaszczuk who have more ambulances ramping at overflowing hospitals than out serving patients .

As if we don't have catastrophe enough, without adding even more female logic to our leadership. Unfortunately there was only one Maggie!

Good onya, Hasbeen.

The only reason Ursula von der Leyen stood out at the recent G7 meeting was her external appearance. In all other respects she was in total lockstep with the men. She kow-towed to the US and supported its proxy war with Russia every bit as effusively as her male counterparts.

Gender alone will never make a difference. It is the calibre of the women (and the men) we elect as leaders which is important. The world will not be safe until we secure enough leaders, both men and women, with the insight and the courage to stand up to the warmongering, self-appointed global hegemon, the US of A. We need leaders who will refuse to support the US's endless wars of greed and dominance and who will instead promote peace and co-operation with all nations.

So you're saying women are inferior, because they need you to rush in and try to help them be equal.

Many years ago I read results of a study about female leaders and the finding was that personality-wise, they were no different from male leaders. I would not vote for a candidate based on gender. There are many unflattering comments by Germans about Ursula von der Leyen, who served in the German federal government from 2005 to 2019.