The patriarchy demands a women to be the bearer and the caretaker of children and the domestics. Nurturing and caring have been considered feminine qualities whereas the Male has to emerge as a bread winner of the family. The leadership roles were always reserved for men and it has not been very long since women were even considered as able voters. It was from the beginning of the 20th century, women all over the world were granted some political freedom. However, in this short interval after gaining some degree of emancipation, women seemed to have fared better than men in the leadership roles. I surf through the cases of countries struggling with the pandemic and compare between the handling of the current Corona pandemic by the countries lead by the men and the women at other hand. We will see why it makes sense when I say we are slowly moving towards a world with more female leaders as I present my arguments along with it.
As the virus takes tolls daily, the WHO estimates put the total death all over the world due to the virus to almost four hundred thousand. The rapid spread of the virus which originated from Wuhan in China has had a severe effect on the daily lives of the people and economy of the whole world. We are seeing a change in the way people work or travel and the experts say it is going to last longer than previously believed.
Nevertheless, the world is giving a fight and each nation has adopted their own strategy but let us look at some examples where Women are in charge. Taiwan’s president, Tsai Ing-wen didn’t waste valuable time and introduced a large number of measures to block the spread of the virus from as early as January when it wasn’t even a global phenomenon. Given the proximity of Taiwan with the origin of the virus, one would assume a large number of cases to appear but as of June, Taiwan has fewer than 500 Coronavirus confirmed cases. If we compare the ways in which male and female leaders tackled the pandemic, it is found that women leaders’ way of handling is more effective. In Iceland where Katina Jakobsdottir servers as the prime minister went on to perform large scale testing irrespective whether a person has had any symptoms. As of now, less than 2000 confirmed cases have found its way in Iceland and though it may seem proportionally higher given the small population of Iceland, the curve has flatted by a great margin. Similarly Germany took measures based on scientific data and was also early to act. Even with a relaxed lockdown measures placed in Germany, the spread has been contained well and the normalcy is returning. Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor has also been able to assure and build confidence into the German population by her regular interviews where she has presented her arguments for different measures being taken. With this, her approval rating has increased significantly.
Finland’s prime minister- Sanna Marin is one of the world’s youngest leader who enjoys an 85% approval rating. She has involved social media influencers and encouraged sharing of fact-based information related to the pandemic. In a world with an easy access to any Information, it is also easy to mislead public by feeding wrong information and create panic. Therefore, to encourage sharing of true information is important in this fight. Norway’s Prime Minister Erna Solberg also used a different tactic to ease the anxiety on the pandemic by holding televised talk program dedicated to answering only children’s queries.
Amongst all these female leaders, the one who seems to have stood out is New Zealand’s Prime Minister- Jacinda Ardern. In New Zealand, the restrictions were imposed when there were only six confirmed cases in the whole country. The prompt and strict measures were effective. New Zealand made sure that strict lockdown measures were implemented. Her quick and prompt response against the virus proved to be effective. There were no new cases in the last couple of days and the biggest success of all is that there are no active cases present. This is a true achievement and New Zealand is considering to lift all the Coronavirus restrictions.
However, not all seems to be in the right place in the countries like the US, UK and China. Though these countries have adequate expertise and a robust health system, it’s the leadership that has primarily failed to make any prompt decision and take any effective measures early on. In the US, Donald Trump initially ignored the threat of the virus while claiming the fear to have been excessively exaggerated. He took measures but by then things got out of hand and today the US has around two million confirmed cases and over hundred thousand deaths, a number exceptionally higher than any country in the world. There are similar stories from other nations where men have taken the leadership roles. There also numerous cases one leader has accused other leaders for their own shortcomings and instead of coming together to solve the issue they have only give rise to more hostility. This is where the men leaders have utterly failed.
This success of female leaders all over the world is bound to give rise to a new trend. We will see more future women leaders occupying the topmost positions and perform executive duties. The pandemic has given a glimpse into how the world will look if we are headed by more women leaders. The future looks bright and peaceful with more women leaders. I believe women leaders have learned to empathize with the public and this will present an advantage when they run for their next term. There is a strong possibility that we will be building a new world order, a world order where women are not bound to stay at home but to come out and lead the world.