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Women have led the way in the Covid crisis – but what now for gender equality?

The leadership of New Zealand’s Jacinda Ardern has been cited as inspirational -  Mark Baker/AP
The leadership of New Zealand’s Jacinda Ardern has been cited as inspirational - Mark Baker/AP

Scan the list of countries that fared relatively well during the first wave of coronavirus and you’ll find plenty have a woman in charge.

Germany, under Chancellor Angela Merkel, was commended for its rapid response and mass testing programme. Although cases have jumped recently, it has still recorded a significantly lower death toll than many other large European countries (9,122 deaths at the time of writing).

You can see the trajectory here:

Coronavirus Germany Spotlight Chart - cases default
Coronavirus Germany Spotlight Chart - cases default

Denmark, under prime minister Mette Frederiksen, also won praise for its handling of the crisis: it locked down early and decisively, and the messaging from the top was clear. It has lost 614 people to the virus to date.

Finland’s prime minister Sanna Marin also moved quickly and contained the virus effectively. A total of 329 deaths have been recorded there so far. In Iceland, under prime minister Katrín Jakobsdóttir, an effective system of tracing and testing was rapidly established. The country didn’t lock down, but still it has only recorded 10 coronavirus deaths.

Elsewhere, the leadership of New Zealand’s Jacinda Ardern has been cited as inspirational. The country’s response was aggressive and uncompromising, and was coupled with clear communication and empathy from Ardern. The country’s death toll stands at 22.

These figures must be viewed in context: apart from population size and density, demographic profile is significant, as well as connectedness. That London and New York are home to airports that serve as giant hubs of international travel made them particularly vulnerable. We should also bear in mind that the percentage of female leaders is far smaller than male leaders globally. But as Kathleen Gerson, a professor of sociology at New York University, has noted: “With that being said, among the countries which have done a better job of handling this pandemic and the spillover effects that it has had, women are disproportionately represented to a rather startling degree.”

Germany, under Chancellor Angela Merkel, was commended for its rapid response and mass testing programme. - STEPHANIE LECOCQ/POOL/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
Germany, under Chancellor Angela Merkel, was commended for its rapid response and mass testing programme. - STEPHANIE LECOCQ/POOL/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock

It probably seems less startling to Andi Simon, a New York-based corporate anthropologist and author of the forthcoming book Rethink: Smashing the Myths of Women in Business, who argues the research is compelling that women lead better than men. As we recover from the pandemic and restore our economies and culture, she believes societies need female leadership more than ever.

During her own career, she has observed how a typically male “command and control” leadership style in the business world frequently compares unfavourably with female leadership.

“[Women often] think about ‘we’, not ‘I’, and we know that...when you think ‘we’ there’s oxytocin in the brain that comes down and people smile,” she says. “When you talk about ‘I’, the aggressive amygdala [a part of the brain thought to play a key role in emotion and behaviour] gets active, the cortisol emerges and people are not trusting.”

We have seen such problematic leadership in both Donald Trump’s America and Jair Bolsonaro’s Brazil, she suggests. “There’s good literature about how [they] try to inspire people using fear and not [talking] about ‘we’ but ‘I’. When you listen to [President] Trump talking, it’s all about power and control,” she says.

While correlation should not be confused with causation, it is also notable that these two countries have the highest coronavirus death tolls in the world.

Simon is clear that command and control governance has proven to be unsuitable in the current crisis and that something different is needed.

Denmark, under prime minister Mette Frederiksen, locked down early and decisively, and the messaging from the top was clear -  FRANCISCO SECO/POOL/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
Denmark, under prime minister Mette Frederiksen, locked down early and decisively, and the messaging from the top was clear - FRANCISCO SECO/POOL/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock

“You must listen to others,” she says. “That’s hard for some leaders to understand. They are not all-knowing, they’re vulnerable, and that vulnerability makes them fearful. Like deer in the headlights, they become stuck, and...they’re all over the place. Donald Trump is all over the place: ‘wear a mask, don’t wear a mask, wear a mask.’”

Similar criticism might be levelled at British prime minister Boris Johnson, whose cabinet, and decision-making process, is dominated by men. At the same time his language has been militaristic (“we must act like any wartime government,” he said on March 17) and shot through with misplaced bravado: “I was at a hospital the other night where I think there were a few coronavirus patients and I shook hands with everybody,” he blustered on March 3, the same day Number 10’s scientific advisers warned the government should tell people not to shake hands.

The clarity of Number 10’s messaging has at times been so lacking it has prompted both confusion and mockery. Our death toll remains the highest in Europe.

“This has been a very opportune time for people to rise and show their agility, their flexibility, taking the unfamiliar and making it familiar, really building new ways of dealing with things,” observes Simon of the various responses of heads of state. “They were making it up. The ladies’ ways of making it up have worked; the guys’ ways have been very self-serving, very command and control, very protective of themselves.”

If fewer women than men have died of the virus itself, their lives have nonetheless been disproportionately impacted by the crisis, as The Telegraph’s ongoing Equality Check series has highlighted. Data shows they have been more likely to lose their jobs and have taken on more of the childcare and home-schooling burden. But could a positive story for women yet emerge from all of this? If a “male” leadership style hasn’t worked in the crisis, while female leaders have demonstrably performed well, might we see a leap forward for gender equality in a post-covid world?

Finland’s prime minister Sanna Marin also moved quickly and contained the virus effectively - REUTERS/Johanna Geron/Pool
Finland’s prime minister Sanna Marin also moved quickly and contained the virus effectively - REUTERS/Johanna Geron/Pool

“I do think social values, norms and expectations are persistent and people don’t change very quickly,” cautions Simon. “Having said that, I often preach if you want change, have a crisis or create one...The whole world forever has been dominated by men, who have created the stories. This is an interesting opportunity for us to change the human condition, and that’s not easy...I do think it’s a time for fresh thinking.”

Dr Alice Evans, a lecturer in the social science of development at King’s College London and author of the forthcoming book The Great Gender Divergence, sounds a warier note. “Whether you have more women at the table is going to be a product of a lot of other things,” she says. “So there may be particular kinds of societies more likely to have more women at the table. But organisational diversity usually enables firms and organisations to think through and see different perspectives.”

Simple recognition of this fact may not be enough to bring about change on its own. But the position of women could be improved, rather, by the shift in working practices the pandemic has necessitated.

“For the past 20 years many women - and also disabled people - have said ‘let’s have more flexible working environments, let’s allow people to work from home.’ And firms have always said ‘no, it’s impossible, we need people in the office,’” says Dr Evans. “This crisis has forced people to work from home and many employers have seen that it’s actually manageable and people can be efficient.”

Given that women typically juggle their work with more childcare responsibilities than men do, they could therefore stand to benefit disproportionately from a greater home-working culture post-covid.

“Normalising a more flexible work culture which enables women to work from home could be really important,” says Dr Evans.

The future is highly uncertain. Improvements in women’s lives will depend on a host of factors: government spending on public services, childcare provision and the speed of economic recovery, to name a few.

There will be other crises to come: a historic recession is expected; climate change remains an existential threat; and Covid-19 has shown how vulnerable our hyper-connected planet remains to fast-spreading virus and disease.

But what we have already seen, says Simon, is that women are transforming the way we’re doing things. “Women are changing the way in which leadership can be done - in a crisis but also in general.”