Does having a woman at a country’s helm help keep Covid-19 deaths lower?
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The evidence is in: at least during the first wave of Covid-19, countries with female leaders suffered far lower death rates than comparable nations led by men.
This doesn’t mean that the trend will necessarily persist in a second or third wave. Nor does it imply that women are also better leaders when it comes to whatever else governments find themselves doing, from reforming labour markets to waging war. But it’s worth pondering nonetheless.
In doing so, it’s of course tempting to descend into the netherworld of gender stereotypes and individual caricature. Donald Trump, president of the country with the most deaths from Covid-19, has communicated with an uninformed machismo that has provoked reactions ranging from shock to satire. Jair Bolsonaro, president of Brazil, the runner-up in coronavirus deaths, has pooh-poohed the disease as a “little flu”.
By contrast, Angela Merkel, chancellor of Germany, which has generally managed the outbreak well, has impressed with explanations of the epidemiological R0 factor that went “viral” for their sobriety and clarity. Jacinda Ardern, prime minister of New Zealand, which has only 22 deaths from Covid-19 to date, has talked to Kiwis via Facebook Live from her home in a way that is casual and interactive but also reassuring and credible.
Erna Solberg, prime minister of Norway, with 264 deaths, has told her country’s children that “it’s OK to be scared when so many things happen at the same time,” acknowledging vulnerability even while projecting competence.
But in a new global analysis, Supriya Garikipati at the University of Liverpool and Uma Kambhampati at the University of Reading avoid stooping to mere anecdotes. Using data up to May 19, they matched the 19 countries led by women with their “nearest neighbours” according to a mix of factors including population, the economy, gender equality, openness to travel, health expenditures and the proportion of elderly people. They couldn’t use Taiwan (seven deaths), which is governed by a woman but doesn’t belong to the UN.
Their conclusion was unequivocal: on average, the countries run by women suffered half as many deaths from Covid-19 as the nations governed by men. And in individual pairings, “female” countries fared better than “male” ones. Why?
Part of the answer is that the female leaders generally ordered lockdowns much earlier, thus “flattening the curves” of their national outbreaks. Ardern, for instance, calls this approach “going hard and early” — she just went into ...
This doesn’t mean that the trend will necessarily persist in a second or third wave. Nor does it imply that women are also better leaders when it comes to whatever else governments find themselves doing, from reforming labour markets to waging war. But it’s worth pondering nonetheless.
In doing so, it’s of course tempting to descend into the netherworld of gender stereotypes and individual caricature. Donald Trump, president of the country with the most deaths from Covid-19, has communicated with an uninformed machismo that has provoked reactions ranging from shock to satire. Jair Bolsonaro, president of Brazil, the runner-up in coronavirus deaths, has pooh-poohed the disease as a “little flu”.
By contrast, Angela Merkel, chancellor of Germany, which has generally managed the outbreak well, has impressed with explanations of the epidemiological R0 factor that went “viral” for their sobriety and clarity. Jacinda Ardern, prime minister of New Zealand, which has only 22 deaths from Covid-19 to date, has talked to Kiwis via Facebook Live from her home in a way that is casual and interactive but also reassuring and credible.
Erna Solberg, prime minister of Norway, with 264 deaths, has told her country’s children that “it’s OK to be scared when so many things happen at the same time,” acknowledging vulnerability even while projecting competence.
But in a new global analysis, Supriya Garikipati at the University of Liverpool and Uma Kambhampati at the University of Reading avoid stooping to mere anecdotes. Using data up to May 19, they matched the 19 countries led by women with their “nearest neighbours” according to a mix of factors including population, the economy, gender equality, openness to travel, health expenditures and the proportion of elderly people. They couldn’t use Taiwan (seven deaths), which is governed by a woman but doesn’t belong to the UN.
Their conclusion was unequivocal: on average, the countries run by women suffered half as many deaths from Covid-19 as the nations governed by men. And in individual pairings, “female” countries fared better than “male” ones. Why?
Part of the answer is that the female leaders generally ordered lockdowns much earlier, thus “flattening the curves” of their national outbreaks. Ardern, for instance, calls this approach “going hard and early” — she just went into ...
