Countries led by women responded better to Covid-19, study confirms

Countries led by women responded better to Covid-19, study confirms
Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Women leaders systematically perform better in fighting Covid-19 than their male counterparts, a study published by Elsevier’s SSRN confirms.

Since the start of the pandemic, many have remarked that countries led by women (like Belgium, Germany, Taiwan and New Zealand) seemed to be battling the virus more effectively than some of the world’s biggest countries led by men (such as the United States, the United Kingdom and Brazil).

The Guardian reported on Tuesday that this assumption may be true based on an initial study by Professor Uma Kambhampati and Dr. Supriya Garikipati. Both academics hold an interest in gender-related studies.

“Our findings show that COVID-outcomes are systematically better in countries led by women and to some extent, this may be explained by the proactive and coordinated policy responses adopted by them,” the study reads.

In conclusion, there seems to indeed exist a significant difference between the approaches and the effectiveness of these approaches between male and female world leaders.

In their research, Kambhampati and Garikipati examined whether there exists a significant and systematic difference between leaders’ approaches to the virus in the first quarter of the pandemic. They also looked into the number of infections and deaths as a result of the difference in policies.

In total, 194 countries were cross-examined, covering nearly all countries on the globe.

When the countries with the most negative or positive Covid-19 outcomes were removed from the data-sets, the correlation between female leadership and effective response was only strengthened.

“Our results clearly indicate that women leaders reacted more quickly and decisively in the face of potential fatalities,” Garipakti told The Guardian. “Being female-led has provided countries with an advantage in the current crisis.”

“In almost all cases, they locked down earlier than male leaders in similar circumstances. While this may have longer-term economic implications, it has certainly helped these countries to save lives, as evidenced by the significantly lower number of deaths in these countries.”

Amée Zoutberg

The Brussels Times


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