From Tunnel to Light: The Leadership We Need Now

Issue 2862— October 14, 2025

 "Ultimately, I’m going to say I look forward to women taking a stronger place in life. Because I think that may be our hope for the future."


—Actress Helen Mirren, who portrays Israel's first and only female Prime Minister, Golda Meir, in the movie “Golda,” on her vision for the future of peace in the Middle East 

Meir and Egyptian president Anwar Sadat famously became friends after being bitter enemies and fighting a war in which after a surprise attack on Israel by the Egyptian army, Israel prevailed and later relinquished much of the land it had taken.

Golda was tough as nails and never backed down. But in this poignant video, during Sadat’s unprecedented visit to Israel following the war, you see Meir using both flattery and a bit of self-deprecating humor to charm the Egyptian leader.

He had dismissed her as “old lady.” She turned it to her advantage by joking back to him.

This made me think about how rarely women’s leadership styles have shaped the path to peace. It's not unprecedented for former adversaries to become close allies after one has defeated the other. The U.S. and Germany for example, and the U.S and Japan, after World War II. Am I wrong to say the traditional male way of making peace is to trounce your enemy first?

I am certainly not saying that women never start wars. The fact that most wars in the modern age have been started by men is primarily because most national leaders have been men. This analysis by Kim Elesser in Forbes explores both the numbers and the nuances. In short, women have started or led about the same number of wars as men but often as figureheads.

All that said, I agree with Helen Mirren. I mean, could women do worse than the bloody wars currently roiling the world?  

Nobel Peace Prizes have often been given to people who fight autocracy. Venezuelan Maria Corina Machado is a recent example a woman whose grassroots organizing against autocracy. Same for one of my heroines and an example I often cite of how to #createamovement, Liberia’s Leymah Gbowee, whose peace activism led to the election of the first female president of an African nation, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.

There are many ways to lead. Personally, I can’t forget that if the Israel Defense Forces’ superiors had paid due attention to the young female soldiers who warned that Hamas was engaged in suspicious activity near the border, and if their surveillance reports had been heeded, the horrible history of that day would have taken a different turn.

Many of these young women were either killed or taken hostage by Hamas.

As I looked at the photos of the leaders meeting in Sharm El- Sheikh recently to discuss possibilities for peace in the region, it’s glaringly evident that half the world’s population is missing from the leadership table.

And I can’t help but think that if there were more women in leadership, there would be a higher probability of finding ways other than war and killing to resolve differences.

Admittedly, I have been more than a little obsessed with the good news of the return of the last 20 living ones of the 251 hostages taken by Hamas on October 7, 2023, a day that will live in infamy, to borrow a phrase from President Franklin Roosevelt.  A day that has caused me and most Jews in the world to be living in a heightened state of anxiety in the two years since then.

Not that this conflict can be deemed fully resolved. As late former deputy prime minister of Israel Abba Eban is said to have observed, there’s more tunnel at the end of the light.

But today, joy and celebration for the family reunions and continued anticipation that the remaining hostages who were murdered in captivity will be speedily returned.

And after today? It will all depend on leadership, both at the top and at the grassroots.

I’ve written a series of blogposts about my experiences and emotions as a Jew who grew up in the U. S. because my grandparents left the countries where their families had lived for generations in order to escape persecution. They revered this land that was their beacon of freedom and justice. Now many of my Jewish friends and family express fear for their safety in a way that we have never had to before.

I learned from my leadership at Planned Parenthood, where we as an organization and I personally were subjected to terroristic attacks regularly, that the best defense is staying on offense and never to let terrorists rule our lives. Above all never let them cause us to hide who we are and the values we stand for.

So I was already mentally toughened up when October 7 shattered the world I thought I knew. Nothing had prepared me for the emotional gut punch of this moment. Or for the horrible recognition that  there might not be a safe place in all the world for my children and grandchildren.

But the Israeli anthem is “Hope,” and so we do and so we must.

I am proud of who I am and the heritage from which I come. It has strengthened me and inspired me to spend my life working for social justice. It has taught me to be optimistic that we imperfect humans can “repair the world,” or tikkun olam.

 I am optimistic that future can be positive. I believe Gaza will be speedily rebuilt. It has the possibility to prosper in the model of Abu Dhabi, a city that was built in the desert with vision and plenty of money. No question that the nearby Arab countries have the resources to do this, and Jews globally will probably pitch in. I believe the collaborations for peacemaking and business ventures between Israel and its neighbors that I saw on my last visits to the area, will bloom again.  

I challenge women to step up to, ahem, take the lead where opportunities exist, and to make opportunities where none are evident.

Imagine how much better off the world would be if every ounce of energy and intelligence were focused on building solutions to the world’s problems instead of terrorist tunnels, to unleash the human capacity to generate and create, not to destroy or erase people simply because of who they are. To use power TO instead of power over,  the core lesson I teach in Take The Lead trainings.

What do you think?

Here I am with my “Challah-lu-ya” so named by my friend for whom I baked it.

 GLORIA FELDT is the Co-founder and President of Take The Lead, a motivational speaker, and a global expert in women’s leadership development and DEI for individuals and companies that want to build gender balance. She is a bestselling author of five books, most recently Intentioning: Sex, Power, Pandemics, and How Women Will Take The Lead for (Everyone’s) Good. Honored as Forbes 50 Over 50, and Former President of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, she is a frequent media commentator. Learn more at www.gloriafeldt.com and www.taketheleadwomen.com. Find her @GloriaFeldt on all social media.