Madame la Secrétaire générale?

The problem is not a lack of capable women. The problem is a lack of determination, political will and vision.

So concludes a San Francisco Chronicle commentary urging that a woman be appointed Secretary-General of the United Nations at the end of Ban Ki-moon's 1st term in January 2012. (credit for (c) Francesco Federico photo of U.N. plaza)
Only 3 words are devoted to the possibility that Ban, formerly a diplomat in South Korea, might be reappointed. The rest of the full-page essay sets out reasons why "It's time for a Madame Secretary," to quote the title as it appeared in the print edition. (As Stephanie's post above explains, the issue's arisen before.)
The authors -- Dr. Michael E. Brown, Dean of the Elliott School of International Affairs at George Washington University, and Dr. Chantal de Jonge Oudrant, Associate Vice Presidentof the Jennings Randolph Fellowship Program, U.S. Institute of Peace -- then suggest several "brilliant female leaders" whom they deem to possess the requisite "policy expertise, political experience and gravitas."
And their nominees are:
► U.N. Under-Secretary Michelle Bachelet (prior posts), who now serves as the 1st head of UN Women, having completed service as President of Chile, the 1st woman so to lead her country. (More UN Women news in the post below.)
► Helen Clark (prior posts), Administrator of the U.N. Development Programme (1st woman to lead that agency) and former Prime Minister of New Zealand (1st woman to win that office following an election).
► Radhika Coomaraswamy (prior posts), U.N. Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict and former chair of the Sri Lanka Human rights Commission.
► Graça Machel (prior posts), who has served as a U.N. expert on child soldiers, is a women's and children's rights advocate, and who was Minister of Education and Culture in Mozambique.
► Margot Wallström (prior posts), U.N. Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict and formerly holder of ministerial posts both in her native Sweden and in European institutions.
An impressive list.
Glaring omission: absence of any mention of the 3 women who've served as U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights.
Other nominations welcome.

On November 7

On this day in ...
... 1943, Silvia Rose Cartwright (right) was born in Dunedin, New Zealand. She studied at the Otago Girls' High School in the same town, as well as the University of Otago, from which she earned her LL.B. degree in 1967. Since then, she's served as the 1st woman Chief District Judge, the 1st woman on New Zealand's High Court, and the 2d woman Governor-General of New Zealand. On the last post, WikiPedia writes:

Dame Silvia's term as Governor-General was from 4 April 2001 to 4 August 2006. This was the first (and so far only) time when the Monarch (Elizabeth II), Governor-General, Chief Justice (Dame Sian Elias), Speaker of the House (Margaret Wilson) and Prime Minister (Helen Clark) of a Commonwealth Realm were all female.

While a member of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women, she helped to draft the Optional Protocol to CEDAW, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women. Since 2007, Cartwright's been a Judge on the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia.

(Prior November 7 posts are here, here, and here.)

On November 27, ...

... 1999, Helen Clark was elected Prime Minister of New Zealand. On December 5 of the same year Clark (right), born in 1950, was sworn in to the office that she holds to this day. The eldest of 4 girls who grew up on the family sheep ranch, Clark eventually studied and became a lecturer in politics at the University of Auckland. Inspired by issues such as the Vietnam War and South African apartheid, she was elected a Labour Party member of Parliament in 1981. Eventually Clark was dubbed "Mother of the House" as the woman who'd served the longest time in that legislative body. She served in a number of Cabinet ministries before becoming Prime Minister.
... 1963, the Convention on the Unification of Certain Points of Substantive Law on Patents for Invention was signed in Strasbourg, France. Number 47 in the European Treaty Series of the Council of Europe, this Strasbourg Patent Convention, which entered into force on August 1, 1980, helped harmonize patent laws throughout the region.