Female Leaders are Leading the Fight Against COVID-19

In the United States we’ve been hesitant to elect a female leader. We’ve always been led by men and followed that tradition. If it ain’t broke don’t fix it, right? Well, we might want to rethink that. Countries with female leaders seem to be combating Coronavirus much more productively than many of their male counterparts. They’ve acted quickly and successfully; closing their borders, mass-testing citizens, and responding empathetically to their constituents’ concerns.

Consider these numbers provided by the New York Times. The leaders of Germany, Taiwan, New Zealand, Iceland, Finland, Norway, and Denmark are all women. The leader of the United States is not. Here is a comparison as of April 16th:

Early on, the Chancellor of Germany, Angela Merkel, told her country of the gravity of the situation. Because of her quick action, the country began testing early and initiated social distancing measures that have helped slow the spread and prevent deaths from the virus.

Tsai Ing-wen in Taiwan noticed and responded to the Coronavirus in January, introducing 124 measures to block the spread. With such quick actions, she saved her country from disaster. Taiwan hasn’t even had to resort to the lockdowns other countries have had to impose. They haven’t even had to shut down schools. Tsai is even sending PPE(personal protective equipment) to countries that need it, like the US and European nations.

Jacinda Ardern in New Zealand was quick to put her country on maximum alert. Even back when the country had just 6 cases, she made all incoming travellers self-isolate themselves. Shortly after that, she shut the island off from all international visitors. Many other countries are lifting isolation already, resulting in a second wave, Ardern is not. Instead, she’s staying vigilant, imposing a 14 day quarantine on all incoming New Zealanders, and raising the alert level again.

Iceland mass-tested at least 5% of its citizens, with the number continuing to rise, and has become a country to look to for testing success. They helped inform the rest of the world of the commonality of asymptomatic carriers (50% of their positive cases) and, because of their successful testing measures, they have been able to curb the spread of the virus.

Finland’s millennial leader, Sanna Marin, elected just last December, recognized that not all citizens read the news or listen to what the government says. She’s been enlisting social media influencers to help spread facts and encourage social distancing.

Norway’s Prime Minister, Erna Solberg, held a press conference with only children to speak to the kids in her country. She answered their questions and told them that it’s okay to be scared.

Here in America, the ideas that men know better and women are too weak and emotional to be effective leaders have held back some of our most talented and thoughtful women. The much-discussed “glass ceiling” is very real, as Hillary Clinton, Amy Klobuchar, Kamala Harris, Elizabeth Warren and many others have discovered. We are a long way from the notion that Mom belongs in the kitchen with an apron, but we still have a long way to go.

Many of the men in the world, Trump, Bolsonaro, Obrador, Modi, Duterte, Orban, Putin, Netanyahu, the list goes on, have been using this crisis to gain greater personal power and push their countries toward authoritarianism. They’re combatting the Coronavirus with selfishness, and it is not working very well.

In America, it is common for women to be overlooked or to have a much tougher path to leadership than men. This marginalization has happened throughout history. Because women have been held back by outdated traditional ideas, they’re less likely to feel constrained by tradition. Men, on the other hand, are more inclined to adhere to traditions that have entitled them to an easier path. Women have clearly demonstrated they handle situations like the COVID-19 crisis with great compassion and kindness. Many of the countries that are showing success also have societies that are more likely to support and trust having a woman in power. As a whole, they even have higher trust in government. So, unlike America, the people in these countries are trusting that the shelter-in-place order is in their best interest. There are years of research demonstrating that women’s leadership styles tend to be different than those of men. Now, we have even more reason to believe that their approaches can be more effective.

At the end of the day, women-led, developed countries that had similar inundations of the virus had more careful, kind, and more effective actions than the nation led by our poster child for toxic masculinity. I leave you with this, America: If women are on average so much better than men at handling leadership, why are we so critical of every woman who attempts to lead?