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The Third World is awash with examples of women leaders. Countries where women are held in such low esteem that baby girls are murdered have been happy to adore a female leader.

The first woman premier was Sirimavo Bandaranaike in Sri Lanka (formerly Ceylon), who came to power in 1960 and was prime minister on three different occasions. She died in a few months after leaving office in 2000, having spent 18 of the previous 40 years in power. Her daughter Chandrika Kumaratunga became both prime minister and president.

In India another powerful woman took charge: Indira Gandhi was premier from 1966 to 1977 and again from 1980 to 1984. At the last elections, another woman, Sonia Gandhi, led the winning party and could have taken the presidency but chose not to because she is not Indian-born.

Further north, in Pakistan, Benazir Bhutto also held office twice as prime minister, from 1993 to 1996 and again from 1988 to 1990. The former East Pakistan, now Bangladesh, has two women leaders vying with each other for power: Sheikh Hasina and Khalida Zia.

In Burma, which now calls itself Myanmar, the last person to be elected to power was Aung San Suu Kyi: unfortunately, the military seized power before she could take office.

In Indonesia, Megawati Sukarnoputri was president from 2001 to 2004 and has announced that she will be seeking election again next year.

It seems paradoxical that the United States, which prides itself on its respect for women, should be struggling with the idea that Hillary Clinton might become president, when all these Asian states, where women's rights are largely denied, are quite comfortable with the idea.

There is one thing that all these women (including Mrs Clinton) have in common, which has made their rise possible and sometimes almost inevitable: their power is dynastic, every single one of these Asian leaders is the surviving daughter or widow of a famous male leader.

Bandaranaike's husband, Solomon Bandaranaike, was an assassinated premier; Indira Gandhi's father was Nehru, India's first prime minister; Sheikh Hasina's father was "father of the nation" Mujibur Rahman the murdered first president of Bangladesh; Khalida Zia's husband, President Zia Rahman, was assassinated; Benazir Bhutto's father, Zulfiker Ali Bhutto, was executed after being toppled in a coup; Aung San Suu Kyi is the daughter of assassinated independence leader Aung San; Megawati is the daughter of President Sukarno, another toppled independence leader who (uniquely) died of old

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