COVID-19 Proves the Future of Politics is Female
Sandrine Jacquot, Online Staff Writer
September 8, 2020
Statistically speaking, female leaders around the world have been handling the COVID-19 pandemic better than their male counterparts: Does this mean the rise of women in politics after the COVID-19 era?
The COVID-19 pandemic has been, in many ways, a test on humanity. Notably, this crisis has been a test for politicians and their countries, leaving the world to watch as leaders decide how to act. While the pandemic is ongoing and data is constantly changing, one pattern is standing out - that in this political test, female leaders are providing better responses and results in defeating the virus.
As of June 2020, countries with female leaders suffered six times fewer confirmed COVID-19 deaths than countries with male leaders. This pattern has been significant enough to warrant two UK economists Supriya Garikipati and Uma Kambhampati to conduct a study validating this trend with data and research.
The study compares female-led and male-led countries with similar factors such as population, geography, gender equality, and health expenditures to analyse what it means to have a female leader during the COVID-19 pandemic. In the end, no matter how the researchers looked at the data, countries with female leaders fared much better.
An irreparable example is New Zealand and Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern. New Zealand has been praised in the media for successfully combating the COVID-19 virus. Prime Minister Ardern enacted the first of many border closures back in February, implementing an explicit four-stage system. Ardern treated the virus seriously in its early days, aiming to eliminate it. Although the country is still dealing with a few number of cases, it had briefly declared itself COVID free. Ardern has been praised for acting swiftly, following the advice of health experts, and maintaining clear and constant communication with citizens. Polls revealed that more than 80% of New Zealanders supported Ardern and the government’s efforts.
To contrast New Zealand’s situation is Brazil and President Jair Bolsonaro. After being the first South American country to report a case of COVID-19, Brazil continues to be seriously affected with more than 2.1 million people testing positive. This making Brazil the second worst affected country in the world. President Bolsonaro’s response has been anything but effective, after he himself has tested positive for the virus multiple times. As Bolsonaro refused to pass legislation for mandatory masks, condemned lockdown measures and touted the virus as nothing more than a small flu, hospitals were overrun and more than 80 000 people to date have lost their lives. Unfortunately for him, Bolsonaro’s ‘economy first’ strategy has made him relatively unpopular, with a current approval rating around 30%.
While Jacinda Ardern is not the only female leader successfully combating COVID-19, and Jair Bolsonaro is not the only male leader performing abysmally, the trend of female politicians' COVID-19 success is undeniable.That is not to say that all countries with male leaders are performing poorly, but why is it that global female leaders have been able to better manage the COVID-19 crisis?
While it is wonderful to state that female leaders have performed better during the pandemic, this claim is not without its valid limitations. COVID-19 data relies on several variables, and because testing and reporting will vary heavily from country to country, data may not be as accurate or consistent. Secondly, there are simply not enough countries led by females to make effective comparisons with those led by men. Of the 194 countries analyzed in the aforementioned study, only 19 countries had female leaders, a much too small sample size. However, despite this fact, there is still an undeniable trend that women are leading the effort to eliminate COVID-19. There are many other valid arguments, including selection bias (because women must work hard to succeed, those who do are ‘the best of the best’) and correlation not meaning causation (other factors causing low COVID-19 numbers, not simply because the leader is a woman).
COVID-19 is a perfect example of how a crisis can make or break a politician’s career. By prioritizing the health of their citizens over the economy, female-led countries have seen fewer cases and have been able to reopen sooner. Female political leaders have demonstrated many important qualities during the pandemic that other world leaders would benefit from embracing: empathy, compassion, honesty, transparency, determination, and strength. I believe that people will desire these qualities in their future leaders, no matter their gender, and that people will want leaders who prioritize the health of their citizens over a few months of economic recession. Because of COVID-19 this generation truly understands how the decisions politicians make during times of crises can have a serious impact on the future of their citizens.
With female leaders successfully flattening the COVID-19 curve, citizens around the world may now seek out female politicians in a way they did not before the pandemic.
This pandemic has given women a chance to prove their strength in politics. Time and time again, women have proven themselves to be worthy politicians. It’s time women get recognized and have the ability to play a larger role in politics.