They have proven their worth in managing the crisis

Female leaders outperform their male counterparts in fighting Corona

Angela Merkel managed the crisis efficiently.

Reuters

Over the past few months, there has been much discussion about how effectively the world's political leaders have managed the Corona crisis.

Many wondered: Are women or men leaders that performed the best?

Which countries were the worst?

And it was proven early in the crisis that it was female political leaders who had coped very well with the pandemic.

Whether it is New Zealand led by Jacinda Ardern, Taiwan headed by Tsai Ing-wen, and Germany led by Angela Merkel, countries led by women have been examples of how to manage the epidemic.

No doubt, many readers have their own views.

But it can be said that there is a sufficiently large sample of male and female-led countries to compare female and male leaders in this regard.

If we look at examples of women-led countries - New Zealand, Norway, Switzerland, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Iceland, Belgium, Taiwan and Scotland - the data is mixed but interesting.

According to what the Financial Times monitored about disease rates, test rates, and tightening of closures in the OECD club in developed countries, countries led by women did not impose stricter conditions, such as school closures and travel restrictions, compared to those headed by men. Countries with female heads of government have fared better than those with men in terms of mortality rates.

As of the end of November, New Zealand had a cumulative death rate of 5.1 deaths per million people, the lowest in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

In Iceland, Norway and Finland, the death rate per million people remained well below 100 deaths.

In Denmark and Germany, the rate remained below 250 deaths.

This is much better than in the male-led countries: in the Netherlands, France and Sweden, for example, the rate was higher than 500 deaths, and in Italy, the United Kingdom and the United States it was higher than 780 deaths.

In Spain, it is close to 950 deaths.

The one exception with regard to the gender of leadership was Belgium, which had a prime minister until September of this year - with a death rate of 1,360 deaths per million people.

Also, women-led countries have been testing the Coronavirus more strictly.

If we look at the average number of tests performed for each confirmed case in the women-led countries, it reached 244 tests in June, while in the male-led countries it reached 155.

We can probably dismiss confidence in government as a distinguishing factor.

In New Zealand, 77% of the population is satisfied with the government's use of scientific advice.

There are high levels in other women-led countries such as Germany, Norway, and Denmark.

However, male-led countries such as China, Argentina and the Netherlands also enjoy high levels of confidence, with certainly mixed records on the fight against Corona.

Perhaps the most remarkable thing is that the United States, with a satisfaction rating of 18%, is at the bottom of the trust list.

When analyzing why female leaders performed better, we found that women-led countries closed their doors much earlier than male-led countries.

Women-led countries like New Zealand and Germany shut down quickly and with much greater decisiveness than male-led countries like the United Kingdom.

On average, they had 22 fewer deaths on lockdown than their male counterparts.

We also examined whether these results suggest that female leaders are more risk averse.

The literature on attitudes toward risk and uncertainty indicates that women - even those in leadership positions - are more risk averse than men.

In fact, during the current crisis, several cases of risky behavior were reported among male leaders, as the Brazilian President, Jere Bolsonaro, played down the seriousness of "Covid-19" and described it as "a little flu or a little cold" and the British Prime Minister bragged, Boris Johnson said he "shook hands with everyone" on a visit to the hospital.

US President Donald Trump mocked the virus and refused to wear a muzzle, and later they were infected with the virus.

Follow our latest local and sports news, and the latest political and economic developments via Google news