A shining example of powerful women came to me in 2014, ironically while watching the world’s grandest men’s sporting event, the soccer World Cup.

My father and I were in a Cairo cafe to watch the World Cup final, featuring Germany and Argentina playing in Rio de Janeiro’s Maracanã Stadium. Germany won its fourth championship that night, and during the ceremony to hand the cup to the winners, a boy sitting with his family at the table next to ours pointed at the television screen where two women were standing at a podium, awaiting the players.

“Who is that woman, Baba?” the boy asked.

“That is the president of Brazil,” his father replied.

“A woman can be president?”

I jumped into action, explaining that the two teams we had just watched had women leaders, as did the country where they had played. Dilma Rousseff, the president of Brazil, and Angela Merkel, the chancellor of Germany, were giving out handshakes and hugs — only Argentine President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner was absent.

I wanted the boy and the two girls sitting with his family to know that women could be presidents and leaders. Much as with ambition, you need to see what you want to become. Egypt once had a queen called Hatshepsut who ruled for more than 20 years during the 15th century B.C. She was, for a time, the most powerful person in the ancient world. But I wanted someone who was still alive to point to as a reminder that women could be powerful.

Had there been more time, I would have told those children that power is more complicated than presidents and chancellors. That power lives in more places than the presidential office. That there is a difference between power wielded in service of a few and power wielded in service of all.

In the intervening years, two of those countries that were led by women during the 2014 World Cup have served as reminders that when it comes to patriarchy and power, the truth is much more complicated than simply asking “Can a woman be president?” We must ask equally pertinent questions: Is that woman feminist? Is she invested in dismantling patriarchy? Will she use her power to uphold or diminish patriarchy? Both Brazil and Germany have given us complicated answers.