Why the absence of ties isn't the biggest problem at the G7 Summit

The annual G7 meeting is taking place in Germany and photos of the seven leaders meeting has stirred some debate online.

Newly released photos of US president Joe Biden, Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau, French president Emmanuel Macron, Germany chancellor Olaf Scholz, Italian prime minister Mario Draghi, Japanese prime minister Fumio Kishida, and UK prime minister Boris Johnson show the seven men casually dressed.

In dressed-down suits, the seven world leaders posed together for photo ops and some people noticed the photos were lacking something obvious.

Photos from the G7 Summit in Germany feature the seven world leaders without ties. Getty Images

"Ties go zero for seven at the G7 summit. End of an era," Matthew Yglesias tweeted.

"They look like a bunch of guys who forgot their ties," Gerald Butts wrote

"No ties for G7 photo. What do we think?" Alex Salvi asked.

"G7 fails to reaffirm ties," Karthik tweeted.

Yes, for a moment it seemed the lack of ties from each man representing a country in G7 had captured the attention of people who criticized the decision as "fake smart casual" or "odd".

But others people pointed out that it was not the lack of ties that made the photo interesting.

Rather it was the lack of women.

Since former chancellor of Germany Angela Merkel retired from her position in 2021, there are no longer any women leading countries that are part of the G7 which was obvious from the photos.

Only one woman appeared in some photos, Ursula von der Leyen who serves as commission president of the European Union. Although the EU is invited to sit at the table, it is technically not member only serving as a "non-enumerated" member.

"At a time when standing up for women’s rights is more needed than ever, G7 leaders at their summit are exclusively men for the 1st time in 17 years. In that time there have been 2 women G7 heads and 33 men. It matters who’s at the table. (Huge respect to [von der Leyen] of course)" Adrian Lovett wrote on Twitter.

"With what just happened across the border, the G7 photo has a particular sting to it this go around. Elect more women. Elect more diverse candidates. Everywhere. At every level," Carole Saab wrote.

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