How women leadership is successfully managing the coronavirus crisis?

Women have been the better part of men since humanity exists but can they be better leaders in the times of crisis? Well coronavirus certainly throws some very interesting facts and figures in support of women leadership during the time of unprecedented crisis. The motherly instincts become a cherry on the cake.

While we have always read about women being born leaders, their caring instincts, calm head and patience makes them a perfect leadership choice. While this remains a reality the participation of women in political leadership has been all too low. It is still dominated by Men, specially Strongmen in today's scenario who have miserably failed in managing the coronavirus crisis. 

New Zealand and Germany have been commended for their approach in tackling coronavirus pandemic, incidentally both are led by compassionate female leaders. German Chancellor Angela Merkel and New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern have been flexible yet firm in dealing with this unprecedented crisis and have successfully managed to control it while balancing other responsibilities like social and business viability of the country. Both these countries have been a notable exception, with New Zealand having almost completely got rid of the virus after recording only one death, and Germany experiencing nowhere near the level of suffering that's occurring in France, Italy, Spain, Russia, Netherlands and the UK. While Jacinda Ardern and Angela Merkel are representative leaders of their respective countries, we also have many examples of local leadership in the name of Taiwan's Tsai Ing Wen and the health minister of the state of Kerala in India Mrs K.K. Shailaja Teacher, who have been appreciated for their leadership in this time of crisis.

While we may argue that there are many factors involved in a country's handling of the coronavirus crisis but it is worth understanding how the odds stay much favourable in the case of women leadership. Women leadership have consistently been less political, more decisive, more deferential and patient in crisis. Harvard Business review came up with a study in 2019, which concluded that women outscored men on seventeen out of the nineteen capabilities that differentiate excellent leaders from average or poor ones. Women score really high on taking initiative, acting with resilience, practicing self-development, driving for results and displaying high integrity and honesty.

A unique observation that has been made over the years is the fact that even after so many positive values that women bring to the table with their leadership, their participation account for less than 7% of the world's leaders, 24% of politicians, and 5% of fortune 500 CEOs. It is also worth mentioning that women rate themselves with a high degree of underestimation, while men overestimate their abilities. Simply put men think they are far more competent than they really are, which makes them less likely to seek suggestion, expert advice or counsel from experts with subject domain expertise. They also dislike dissenting views or be open to new information that doesn't support their existing biases and prejudices. Something which today's strongmen leaders have shown in plenty ranging from Donald Trump in USA, Bolsonaro in Brazil, Putin in Russia to Modi in India. They enthuse unqualified overconfidence and toxic masculinity. They think, they know more about military than the military itself, more about economics than economists, more about science than scientists, and more about pandemic than epidemiologists. Their Megalomania puts the nation in serious jeopardy.

While we can certainly benefit from having more of women leadership in political high table representing us and less of megalomaniac strongmen, this change needs to be accelerated. More women candidates need to be voted into public office and positions of power. 

Conclusion:

While the time for leadership to shine was presented by the coronavirus pandemic, most of our strongmen leaders dropped the ball. While the world seems to be trying to find answers to this virus without much success, the emergence of women leadership has been a fresh ray of hope. Countries like New Zealand and Germany have done really well in comparison to other western countries in controlling and managing its spread. The main reason for this contrasting result can be attributed to leadership. While the strongmen leaders were all over the place with their response and 'know it all' attitude, the women leadership understood they were not the all-knowing goddesses and sough right counsel and engaged experts to deal with various challenges. Going forward we can only hope to vote for more women leaders in powerful and influential positions taking a cue from this crisis.