Remember the conventional wisdom that female rulers tend to be more peaceful than male rulers? It may not necessarily be true:
After sifting through historical data on queenly reigns across six centuries, two political scientists have found that it’s more complicated than that. In a recent working paper, New York University scholars Oeindrila Dube and S.P. Harish analyzed 28 European queenly reigns from 1480 to 1913 and found a 27 percent increase in wars when a queen was in power, as compared to the reign of a king. “People have this preconceived idea that states that are led by women engage in less conflict,” Dube told Pacific Standard, but her analysis of the data on European queens suggests another story.
The reason, evidently, was because female rulers divided the labor of ruling with their husbands, allowing a more efficient state that was better able to support wars.
The science is settled. Women are warmongers. 😉
And … this is news?
To some, perhaps.
It is definitely counter to the usual narrative…