Queen Elizabeth II has shown that women can make great leaders. A great leader inspires, loves, and stands as one with the people. The world saw one such woman leader depart this realm on Sept. 8, 2022. Throughout her 70 years of leadership, Queen Elizabeth II inspired her countrymen. In her inaugural speech, she pledged to do whatever she could do to make her people’s lives better when the role of leader was thrust upon her young shoulders.

During the terror of World War II that she inherited along with her throne, she worked as a mechanic alongside her people to do what she could as they all worked to save the country from a mad leader who invaded and bombed his neighbors. Through 70 years of the nation’s growth and change, she remained steadfast in her resolve to include all of the political factions in the country and to maintain peace. As a grandmother, she saw changes in her family and world and embraced them, inspiring her people to grow and change with the times as she did. She was a role model for her people to be honorable and thus she fostered national pride to the country.

She loved the people she was in charge of during her lifetime and they love her. This was evident in her many trips to all parts of the world to be available to her people rather than hiding away in her palace. She went, in person, to see for herself the lives of her countrymen, their condition, and to listen to their needs. She managed to work together with whomever became the prime minister of the country, and to guide their decisions with respect and in a cooperative manner, always keeping the needs of her people at the forefront of her efforts. She instigated laws that addressed those needs throughout her entire life, working with her fellow leaders rather than putting herself and her ego at odds with them. She loved the country and her fellow countrymen enough to stand with them in times of peril and to laugh and play with them in times of celebration.

She put their needs ahead of her own throughout her life. Her family, like all families, had problems that she had to address in public. Knowing that she was a role model for her people, and girding herself with the strength of her faith, she was able to show her people that she, like they, had to face life’s dilemmas.

Throughout her lifetime, fighting shoulder to shoulder with the people during the war, losing loved ones, seeing her family face the problems of all families, she managed to remain steady in her resolve to keep a promise to her people, to put their needs and lives ahead of her own whenever necessary. To that end she managed to show her love of all of her family members, and to respect their wishes and lives.

As a role model to the world, perhaps more countries will choose to elect women leaders, since women tend toward cooperation rather than competition. Queen Elizabeth’s legacy of honor and stability demonstrated to the world what it takes to be a great leader.

Women’s Watch is a cooperative writing effort of the local chapters of the American Association of University Women, the League of Women Voters and the National Organization for Women. This piece was authored by Lorie Lux.