Crisis Competence: How Women Leaders Tackled Covid-19 and the Economic Recession

• In Event: Presidential Leadership and the Makings of Public Policy

Abstract

As Covid-19 cases and deaths mounted around the world in the spring of 2020, variance quickly emerged in how countries responded. Cross-national differences in containment strategies, health measures, economic policies, curtailment of civil liberties, and mortality rates have surfaced globally. A wide variety of news media outlets presented the narrative that women leaders were more successful at handling the pandemic than their male counterparts. This has sparked an active scholarly debate regarding the role of gender in explaining variance in pandemic outcomes. However, this debate predominantly consists of large-N quantitative studies that find statistically insignificant correlations given the small sample size of women leaders. The current scholarly discussion lacks a study that features thick process tracing within the headline cases: the women-led countries that proved among the most adept in the world at responding to the pandemic. To address this, we take an in-depth look at these cases to identify critical junctures and crucial actors in the policy making process. Existing literature also focuses on the Covid-19 crisis as solely a public health crisis, despite the corresponding worst global recession since the Great Depression. Therefore, our research question is as follows: To what extent does the leader’s gender matter (if at all) in explaining the success of their country’s response to the Covid-19 crisis and accompanying recession? We conduct elite interviews with senior politicians and civil servants in New Zealand, Germany, and Iceland to analyze the decision-making processes that led to the pandemic outcomes we see today. Our research investigates whether women-led countries are more prone to produce more successful health outcomes during the pandemic and to better withstand the negative economic impact sparked by the pandemic.

Authors

• Katie Tyner, The Cohen Group

• Farida Jalalzai, Virginia Tech

• Sarah Elise Wiliarty, Wesleyan University