Women can no longer claim, at least with a straight face, that they don't get to show their leadership ability. Both senators from California, for example, are women, and Nancy Pelosi just became the leader of the House Democrats. Hillary Clinton is being touted as presidential timber. Margaret Thatcher took the helm in Britain, Indira Ghandi in India, and Benazir Bhutto in Pakistan, of all places.

On the other hand, it does seem true that there remains a double standard for the assessment of women in leadership. Consider two cases in California.

Chuck Quackenbush was elected as state insurance commissioner in 1994 and again in 1998. During his second term, he was accused of waiving up to $3 billion in industry fines in exchange for contributions to a non-profit fund. State legislators charged that Quackenbush used at least half of the money for television ads to boost his own political career.

The case sparked outrage and drew massive publicity. In 2000, Mr. Quackenbush resigned under threat of impeachment and the governor appointed a retired judge to replace him. Now contrast the fate of Mr. Quackenbush with the treatment accorded Delaine Eastin, California's former State Superintendent of Public Instruction.

Eastin was elected in 1994, taking over from Bill Honig, who had been convicted of felony conflict-of-interest charges. After this corruption, voters were looking for a schools chief who would clean house and run a tight ship. The California Department of Education (CDE), after all, oversees the distribution of billions in taxpayer funds.

Millions in spending are designated for adult education and citizenship classes. Yet on Eastin's watch many of the "'community-based organizations"' that were receiving this money, more than $20 million all told, failed to meet the qualifications. In some cases the funds were going to buy jewelry and luxury automobiles. One of the schools turned out to be an empty field.

CDE auditors brought this massive fraud to the attention of Delaine Eastin, who was also taking heat from Sacramento politicians with connections to the recipient organizations. A strong, principled leader would have resisted such pressure and tackled the corruption head on. Delaine Easton, however, caved in. She fired and demoted the whistleblowers, and did everything in her power to avoid blame.

Unlike the Quackenbush case, the press paid little attention to the scandal. The authorities were also slow to respond, and the fired whistleblowers, who were simply doing their job to protect taxpayers, had no recourse but to sue. The courts recognized their plight.

A jury recently found state superintendent Delaine Eastin personally liable for nearly $1.4 million in non-economic damages and also levied $150,000 in punitive damages. This is a significant ruling against a high public official, especially one who oversaw a system that serves millions of California school children. But it created barely a stir in the opinion columns.Had equal treatment prevailed, Eastin would have been forced to step down when the scandal broke during the mid-1990s. State watchdog agencies warned that Eastin's CDE exercised virtually no oversight functions and that the waste was massive. But unlike Chuck Quackenbush, Delaine Eastin remained in power, making life difficult for charter schools and homeschoolers. By any standard, she is one of the worst public officials in California history.

During Eastin's tenure, education spending rose from about $5,500 per pupil in 1994-95 to more than $9,000 per pupil today. Yet test scores, especially on the new standards-aligned exams, languish at alarmingly low levels. On her way out the door, the woman who lacked the courage to tackle massive fraud lamented, "'We don't have the courage of heart and the spine to raise taxes to educate children."'

Eastin now moves on to her reward as executive director of the National Institute for School Leadership, an organization that prepares principals to be "'outstanding instructional leaders."' Who said irony is dead? Yes, there's still a gender gap - but it is one that often works in women's favor.

Sally Pipes is President and CEO at the California-based Pacific Research Institute for Public Policy. She can be reached via email at spipes@pacificresearch.org.