Leading international media outlets have been consistently covering countries that have had successes and achievements in their response to the coronavirus crisis. What all of these countries have in common is having female leaders.<\/p>\r\n
\u201cIt was actually female leaders who started acting much earlier and decisively.\u201d \u201cBeing a woman doesn\u2019t make you better at handling a global pandemic \u2013 but women generally have to be better in order to become leaders,\u201d wrote the author referring to New Zealand, Taiwan, and Germany as examples.<\/p>\r\n The leaders of these three countries are women and they\u2019ve been doing an exceptional job handling the coronavirus crisis.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\r\n Tsai Ing-Wen, a former law professor, became the first female president of Taiwan in 2016 and was re-elected in January of 2020. She has put up a quick and successful defence against the virus and despite its proximity to mainland China, it has had only 400 confirmed cases. It\u2019s worth noting that the article was published on April 11 and two weeks after that, on April 25, the number of confirmed cases was 429, and there were 6 deaths. Taiwan has a population of about 23.8 million.<\/p>\r\n This country is so well prepared that is has been donating 10 million masks to the US and 11 European countries.<\/p>\r\n Jacinda Ardern, the Prime Minister of New Zealand, is one of the most talked about officials these days. Leading media outlets keep reporting about her initiatives. According to one source, New Zealand is one of the leading nations in the fight against Covid-19. By April 11, 2020, the country only had one Covid-19 death. That\u2019s partly due to geography and size: with under 5 million people, New Zealand\u2019s entire population is much smaller than New York\u2019s. Being an island state also gives it a distinct advantage. However, leadership is also a factor. New Zealand has implemented widespread testing and Ardern has responded to the crisis with clarity and compassion.<\/p>\r\n Germany has been hit hard by coronavirus, but it has an exceptionally low mortality rate of around 1.6%. Italy\u2019s fatality rate is 12%; Spain, France and Britain\u2019s is 10%; China\u2019s is 4%; America\u2019s is 3%. Low death rates have to do with aggressive testing and a large number of intensive care beds. Again, however, the country\u2019s leadership plays a role. The Guardian has quoted a joke someone posted on Twitter: if you\u2019re asking why death rates are so low in Germany and so high in America, it\u2019s because their chancellor used to be a quantum chemist and the US President used to be a reality television host. Merkel indeed has a doctorate in quantum chemistry.<\/p>\r\n <\/p>\r\n Officials take 20 percent pay cuts<\/strong><\/p>\r\n In another article <\/strong>The Guardian<\/a> had written about how the prime minister of New Zealand and other officials had taken a 20% pay cut lasting six months in a display of social solidarity with those affected by the coronavirus as well as the frontline workers. <\/strong><\/p>\r\n \u201cIf there was ever a time to close the gap between groups of people across New Zealand in different positions, it is now,\u201d Jacinda Ardern had said.<\/p>\r\n Women are stepping up to show the world how to manage a messy patch for our human family<\/strong><\/p>\r\n Forbes<\/a> writes that, \u201cLooking for examples of true leadership in a crisis? From Iceland to Taiwan and from Germany to New Zealand, women are stepping up to show the world how to manage a messy patch for our human family. Add in Finland, Iceland and Denmark, and this pandemic is revealing that women have what it takes when the heat rises in our Houses of State. Many will say these are small countries, or islands, or other exceptions. But Germany is large and leading, and the U.K. is an island with very different outcomes. These leaders are gifting us an attractive alternative way of wielding power. What are they teaching us?\u201d<\/p>\r\n CNN<\/a> continues, \u201cFour of the five Nordic countries (Sweden, Norway, Finland, Denmark, and Iceland) are led by women. Their countries each have lower death rates from coronavirus compared to the rest of Europe. For example, Finland’s Prime Minister, 34-year-old Sanna Marin, is the world’s youngest leader but she has an 85% approval rating. Denmark and Iceland also have female prime ministers and have been making noteworthy efforts in the fight against coronavirus.<\/p>\r\n The success of these and other women-led governments in dealing with a global pandemic is all the more noteworthy, given that women make up less than 7% of world leaders. CNN notes that it’s too early to make any predictions but at the moment it is clear that the leaders who acted early and decisively were women. “We have created a world where women are squeezed into just 25% — one quarter — of the space, both in physical decision-making rooms, and in the stories that we tell about our lives. One quarter is not enough,” said UN Women Executive Director Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka while adding that it was long past time for us to recognize that the world is in dire need of more women leaders and equal representation of women at all levels of politics.<\/p>\r\n <\/p>\r\n Why we need a greater number of women at the highest level of politics<\/strong><\/p>\r\n \u201cThere are many lessons to be learnt from the COVID-19 pandemic and one of them might be how the world is in desperate need of a greater number of women at the highest level of politics,\u201d<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong>writes <\/strong>Byline times<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n The article reminds us that in the global fight against the Coronavirus, New Zealand and Germany are notable exceptions, with the former having almost completely \u201csquashed\u201d the virus after recording only one death, and the latter experiencing nowhere near the level of suffering that\u2019s been occurring in neighboring countries. The author also notes that both countries have female leaders \u2013 Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Chancellor Angela Merkel.<\/p>\r\n Handling of the crisis in New Zealand has been hailed a masterclass for political leaders, while Merkel has been lauded for pulling out the \u201cbazooka\u201d<\/a> against the threat, notes Byline times, while also adding that there are an array of complex layers as to why some countries are outperforming others in combating the virus, but it is also worth exploring whether or not female leadership \u2013 or a lack thereof \u2013 is a factor in a nation\u2019s ability to tackle a crisis.<\/p>\r\n Are New Zealand and Germany outperforming their peers because women leaders are less political, more decisive, more deferential to qualified expertise or cooler in a crisis? The clues to this riddle might lie in a study published by the Harvard Business Review<\/a> in 2019, which found that women outscored men on 17 of the 19 capabilities that differentiate excellent leaders from average or poor ones. Women were rated as excelling in taking initiative, acting with resilience, practicing self-development, driving for results, and displaying high integrity and honesty. Yet, women account for fewer than 7% of the world\u2019s leaders and 24% of politicians. It is not inconceivable that this yawning gender gap plays a contributing role in fueling the world\u2019s wicked problems, including poverty, wealth disparity, climate change, famine and war.<\/p>\r\n It is also interesting that, when it comes to rating their own performance, women underestimate their own ability, but men overestimate theirs. In other words, men think that they are far more competent than they actually are, which makes men less likely to seek the counsel of subject matter experts, welcome dissenting views or be open to new information that doesn\u2019t support their existing biases and prejudices.<\/p>\r\n
\u201cThe secret weapon in the fight against coronavirus: women,\u201d this was the headline of one of the articles of the British The Guardian<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\r\n