Why female-led nations have low Covid-19 cases

New Zealand, on Monday, declared it had eradicated the coronavirus and lifted all remaining lockdown restrictions. The last known person was diagnosed on April 29, according to data from the Ministry of Health. It becomes the first country to return to normality as it was pre-pandemic.

"Our strategy of go hard, go early has paid off," Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said last week.

The fact that Ms Ardern has navigated her country to the verge of eliminating Covid-19 highlights a widely noticed trend; countries led by women seem to be particularly successful at keeping cases and deaths low. 

Plenty of data backs this theory up. Twenty-two New Zealanders have died, while there have only been 1,504 confirmed cases, according to the John Hopkins University of Medicine. 

CONTACT TRACING

The death rate in Germany, led by Angela Merkel, is far lower than most EU countries, including France, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom (all governed by men).

Merkel, who has a doctorate in quantum chemistry, has been praised for her personal public interventions, warning that up to 70 per cent of people would contract the virus. She used testing and contact tracing to avoid full lockdown, while a clip of her explaining the scientific basis behind the government’s lockdown exit strategy was shared thousands of times. Her approval ratings have surged to 68 per cent in May (up from 53 per cent in February). 

Finland Prime Minister, Sanna Marin, 34, swiftly imposed a strict lockdown. To date, the country has under 7,000 cases and fewer than 10 per cent as many deaths as nearby Sweden.

Denmark, led by Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen and Norway’s Erna Solberg, have also done well. Together, both countries have fewer than 1,000 deaths.

"According to Politico, when asked why countries led by women were faring better in the pandemic, Ms Solberg said they have “a little bit less testosterone and power politics” and a greater willingness to cooperate via communal politics. 

MALE LEADERS

Meanwhile, Taiwan president Tsai Ing-wen, has ruled over what’s been described one of the best responses to the coronavirus globally. Despite being one of the most at-risk areas outside of mainland China, according to a study conducted in January, it has reported only seven deaths.

Many have rightly pointed out that many countries with male leaders – Vietnam, Greece, and Australia – have also exceeded. We do need to be “careful about lumping men and women into homogenous categories,” Kathleen Gerson, a professor of sociology at New York University, told The Hill.

But among countries that have handled the pandemic better, and the devastating results, “women are disproportionately represented to a rather startling degree,” she adds. 

A new study found countries with female leaders suffer six times fewer coronavirus deaths and are set to recover sooner from a looming recession caused by the pandemic. The research, from Trinity College Dublin and the University of Pretoria, also found that female-led governments were more effective and rapid at flattening the curve.

SIMILAR POLICIES

“Of course, correlation is not causation,” wrote the authors, “but when we look at most female-led governments’ approach to the crisis, we find similar policies that may have made a difference vis-à-vis their male counterparts; they did not underestimate the risks, focused on preventative measures and prioritised long-term social wellbeing over short-term economic considerations.”

In Taiwan, Ing-wen acted fast. Building on the country’s previous experience with SARS, border controls and wearing face masks quickly became routine as early as January, avoiding a full lockdown. A similar picture emerged in New Zealand, with Ardern implementing a strict lockdown when fewer than 150 people had been infected. 

Iceland, Finland and Norway also took early action, while other countries around the world debated their first steps. 

Still, experts have warned against drawing conclusions that women are more effective at dealing with a pandemic because of their gender, or that they make better leaders. The reality is often a lot more complicated.

Firstly, the sample size is small. Women leaders are still very much in the minority. Merkel is the only woman steering one of the world's 20 largest economies.

Two business academics, Louise Champoux-Paille and Anne-Marie Crotea of Concordia University suggest broadening our perspective.

POLITICAL CULTURE

“What if countries led by women are managing the pandemic more effectively not because they are women, but because the election of women is a reflection of societies where there is a greater presence of women in many positions of power, in all sectors?” they wrote in the Independent. 

“Greater involvement of women results in a broader perspective on the crisis, and paves the way for the deployment of richer and more complete solutions than if they had been imagined by a homogeneous group.”

Gerson backs this sentiment up, noting that women leaders are more likely to be elected in “a political culture in which there’s relative support and trust in the government."
Women have historically been marginalised, particularly as leaders, and many argue those who rise to power feel less pressure to adhere to traditional strongmen methods of governing (in March, British Prime Minister Boris Johson stated proudly that, "I was at a hospital where there were a few coronavirus patients and I shook hands with everybody." Weeks later, he was admitted to intensive care).

It simply may be harder for men to escape “the way they are expected to behave” as leaders, says Gerson, which makes “it difficult for them to step over those boundaries and act in a different way from the norm.”

Still, while the Trinity study points out there is not yet enough hard evidence to demonstrate a “clear female factor” at play, we cannot “simply dismiss such stark differences.”
“Some women leaders have understood that placing social and environmental wellbeing at the core of national policymaking has positive effects on society’s resilience and benefits the economy too. 

“It’d be wise for their men colleagues to take note.”