Leta Hong Fincher* says women leaders are doing a disproportionately great job at handling the pandemic, so why aren’t there more of them?
In Taiwan, early intervention measures have controlled the coronavirus pandemic so successfully that it is now exporting millions of face masks to help the European Union and others.
Germany has overseen the largest-scale coronavirus testing program in Europe, detecting the virus early enough to isolate and treat patients effectively.
In New Zealand, Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern (pictured) took early action to shut down tourism and impose a country-wide lockdown, limiting coronavirus casualties to just nine deaths.
All three places have received accolades for their impressive handling of the coronavirus pandemic.
The success of these and other women-led governments in dealing with a global pandemic is all the more noteworthy given that women make up less than 7 per cent of world leaders.
Early, decisive action
These countries — all multi-party democracies with high levels of public trust in their governments — have contained the pandemic through early, scientific intervention.
They have implemented widespread testing, easy access to quality medical treatment, aggressive contact tracing and tough restrictions on social gatherings.
Take Taiwan, a democracy of almost 24 million people — with roughly the same population as Australia.
Taiwan is claimed by Beijing as its territory and shunned by the World Health Organisation (WHO), so it should have been highly vulnerable to an epidemic originating in mainland China.
But when Taiwan’s President, Tsai Ing-wen heard about a mysterious new virus infecting the citizens of Wuhan in December last year, she immediately ordered all planes arriving from Wuhan to be inspected.
She then set up an epidemic command centre, ramped up production of personal protective equipment such as face masks and restricted all flights from mainland China, Hong Kong and Macau.
Taiwan’s early, aggressive intervention measures have limited the outbreak to just 393 confirmed infections and six deaths.
Germany, with 83 million citizens, has had over 132,000 infections but very low deaths per million — far lower than most other European countries.
German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, with a doctorate in quantum chemistry, has seen her approval ratings soar due to her capable handling of the pandemic.
Germany has the most intensive care beds and the largest-scale coronavirus testing program in Europe.
New Zealand is an island country of almost five million, which relies heavily on tourism.
But Ardern shut New Zealand’s borders to foreign visitors on 19 March and announced a lockdown of the country on 23 March, requiring all non-essential workers to stay at home except for grocery shopping or exercising nearby.
The country has carried out widespread testing and recorded over 1,300 coronavirus cases, but only nine deaths.
“In the face of the greatest threat to human health we have seen in over a century, Kiwis have quietly and collectively implemented a nationwide wall of defence,” Ardern said in a recent speech to the nation.
The Nordic countries
Four of the five Nordic countries are led by women.
They each have lower death rates from coronavirus than the rest of Europe.
Finland’s Prime Minister, 34-year-old Sanna Marin has an 85 per cent approval rating among Finns for her preparedness for the pandemic, with only 59 deaths in a population of 5.5 million.
Iceland’s Prime Minister, Katrín Jakobsdóttir governs a small island country of only 360,000 people.
But its large-scale, randomised testing of the coronavirus could have broad ramifications for the rest of the world, as it has found that around half of all people who test positive for the virus are asymptomatic.
Iceland also intervened early, aggressively contact-tracing and quarantining.
Contrast these interventionist responses with Sweden — the only Nordic country not led by a woman — where Prime Minister, Stefan Löfven refused to impose a lockdown and has kept schools and businesses open.
There, the death rate has soared far higher than in most other European countries.
Other female heads of state have also made headlines through their tough response to the coronavirus.
Prime Minister, Silveria Jacobs of Sint Maarten governs a tiny Caribbean island of just 41,000, but her no-nonsense video telling citizens to “simply stop moving” for two weeks has gone viral around the world.
“If you do not have the type of bread you like in your house, eat crackers,” she said.
‘Incompetent, science-denialist men’
Of course, South Korea’s (male) President, Moon Jae-in has deservedly received praise for flattening the curve of infections in his country through widespread testing.
But many countries led by incompetent, science-denialist men have had catastrophic coronavirus outbreaks.
The epicentre of the pandemic is now the US, where President, Donald Trump initially accused the Democratic Party of politicising the virus, called it a “hoax” and failed to heed multiple warnings from top scientists.
Similarly, UK Prime Minister, Boris Johnson dismissed the severity of the public health crisis and refused to introduce restrictions on social gatherings long after other European countries went on lockdown.
Before he was hospitalised with COVID-19, he told reporters that the virus would not stop him from shaking hands with hospital patients.
And the coronavirus would not have spread throughout the world as swiftly if Chinese President, Xi Jinping had not allowed five million people to leave Wuhan before it went on lockdown.
More women needed?
It’s too early to say definitively which leaders will emerge as having taken enough of the right steps to control the spread of coronavirus — and save lives.
But the examples above show that a disproportionately large number of leaders who acted early and decisively were women.
Yet, on 1 January, only 10 of 152 elected heads of state were women — and men made up 75 per cent of parliamentarians, 73 per cent of managerial decision-makers and 76 per cent of the people in mainstream news media.
“We have created a world where women are squeezed into just 25 per cent … of the space, both in physical decision-making rooms, and in the stories that we tell about our lives,” said UN Women Executive Director, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka.
“One quarter is not enough.”
It is long past time for us to recognise that the world is in dire need of more women leaders and equal representation of women at all levels of politics.
At the very least, the disproportionate number of women leaders succeeding in controlling this pandemic should show us that gender equality is critical to global public health and international security.
* Leta Hong Fincher is a journalist and scholar. She tweets at @LetaHong. Her website is letahongfincher.com.
This article first appeared at edition.cnn.com.
