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Leading the Fight Against the Pandemic: Does Gender Really Matter?

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  • Supriya Garikipati
  • Uma Kambhampati

Abstract

Since the start of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, the relationship between national women leaders and their effectiveness in handling the COVID-19 crisis has received much media attention. This paper scrutinizes this association by considering income, demography, health infrastructure, gender norms, and other national characteristics and asks if women's leadership is associated with fewer COVID-19 cases and deaths in the first few months of the pandemic. The paper also examines differences in the policy responses of leaders by gender. Using a constructed dataset for 194 countries, it uses a variety of economic and sociodemographic variables to match nearest neighbors. The findings show that COVID-19 outcomes, especially deaths, are better in countries led by women and may be explained by the timing of lockdowns. The study uses insights from behavioral studies and leadership literature to speculate on the sources of these gender differences as well as on their implications.HIGHLIGHTS COVID-19 offers a unique spotlight on the effectiveness of national leadership in crises.Little is known about how women versus men leaders manage national crises.Nearest-neighbor matching reveals women-led countries performed better in COVID-19 outcomes.Women leaders locked down their countries more quickly than their men-led neighbors.Women leaders also communicated in ways that were markedly different from men leaders.

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  • Supriya Garikipati & Uma Kambhampati, 2021. "Leading the Fight Against the Pandemic: Does Gender Really Matter?," Feminist Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 27(1-2), pages 401-418, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:femeco:v:27:y:2021:i:1-2:p:401-418
    DOI: 10.1080/13545701.2021.1874614
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    2. Kantorowicz-Reznichenko, Elena & Dabrowska, Justyna & Kantorowicz, Jaroslaw, 2023. "Ann or Peter? Gender Stereotypes and Leadership during a Pandemic Crisis," OSF Preprints 3xp9z, Center for Open Science.
    3. Profeta,Paola, 2020. "Gender Equality and Public Policy," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9781108423359, October.
    4. Raphael Bruce & Alexsandros Cavgias & Luis Meloni & Mario Remigio, 2021. "Under Pressure: Women's Leadership During the COVID-19 Crisis," Working Papers, Department of Economics 2021_19, University of São Paulo (FEA-USP).
    5. Bruce, Raphael & Cavgias, Alexsandros & Meloni, Luis & Remígio, Mário, 2022. "Under pressure: Women’s leadership during the COVID-19 crisis," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 154(C).
    6. Kara, Alper & Nanteza, Aziidah & Ozkan, Aydin & Yildiz, Yilmaz, 2022. "Board gender diversity and responsible banking during the COVID-19 pandemic," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    7. Nelson, Michael A., 2021. "The timing and aggressiveness of early government response to COVID-19: Political systems, societal culture, and more," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 146(C).
    8. Bellani, Luna & Hidalgo-Hidalgo, Marisa, 2023. "Educate Some to Represent Many? Education and Female Political Representation in Europe," IZA Discussion Papers 16539, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    9. Yuliana Loginova & Maria Semenova, 2024. "Board Gender Diversity And Bank Performance During Covid-19: Did Women Save The Day?," HSE Working papers WP BRP 94/FE/2024, National Research University Higher School of Economics.
    10. Gus O'Donnell & Harry Begg, 2020. "Far from Well: The UK since COVID‐19, and Learning to Follow the Science(s)," Fiscal Studies, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 41(4), pages 761-804, December.
    11. Luna Bellani & Marisa Hidalgo-Hidalgo, 2023. "Educate Some to Represent Many? Education and Female Political Representation in Europe," Working Papers 23.12, Universidad Pablo de Olavide, Department of Economics.
    12. Ashraf, Badar Nadeem & El Ghoul, Sadok & Goodell, John W. & Guedhami, Omrane, 2022. "What does COVID-19 teach us about the role of national culture? Evidence from social distancing restrictions," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 80(C).
    13. Danzer, Natalia & Garcia-Torres, Sebastian & Steinhardt, Max F. & Stella, Luca, 2023. "Women in Political Power and School Closure during COVID Times," IZA Discussion Papers 15975, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    14. Diamantino Ribeiro & António Pedro Costa & Jorge Remondes, 2021. "Dubai and United Arab Emirates Ministry of Happiness: Presentation of the National Happiness and Positivity Programme - Qualitative Analysis," European Journal of Social Sciences Articles, Revistia Research and Publishing, vol. 4, July -Dec.
    15. Süheyla Üçışık Erbilen & Merve Uysal, 2023. "The Common Point of Countries Successful Policies in the Struggle Against COVID-19: Women Leaders," SAGE Open, , vol. 13(2), pages 21582440231, June.

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