Angela Merkel and Jacinda Ardern
Women leaders of states have been more successful than men in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic. This was stated by the head of the European Central Bank (ECB) Christine Lagarde, and the statistics were confirmed by the British publication The Independent.
Lagarde praised the response of women politicians to the COVID-19 pandemic, noting that their actions were proactive and their communication style with citizens was understandable. “For myself, I realized that women, as a rule, work better. I am biased like a woman, but I surrender to this bias, ”she announced.
According to the newspaper, the assessments of the head of the ECB are indeed correct. Thus, the top ten countries most affected by the coronavirus, both in the total number of cases and in the number of diseases per million population, include states headed by men.
Thus, Bahrain (22.1 thousand), Chile (17.5 thousand), Panama (12.9 thousand), Armenia (12.2 thousand) are among the five countries ruled by men with the largest number of infections per million people. ) and the USA (11.9 thousand). The worst indicators of countries where women are in charge are Belgium (5.5 thousand), Bolivia (5.4 thousand), Switzerland (3.9 thousand), Germany (2.4 thousand) and Denmark (2.3 thousand).
At the same time, the correlation between the country's success in the fight against coronavirus and whether a woman is in control of it is noticeable even after adjusting for health care costs, tourism development and population density. In addition, it is taken into account that women occupy leadership positions in only ten percent of states.
Thus, in countries with the same population size – Ireland and New Zealand – the number of detected cases differs 25 times as of the end of July. New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern received international praise for her strong and early response, which helped to block the spread of the virus.
A study by economists Supriya Garikipati and Uma Kambhampati hypothesized that women-led countries cope better with the coronavirus because of the qualities of women leaders. It is argued that women are more likely to risk the economy than the lives of people, and prefer a leadership style based on empathy and scientific evidence. “Even taking into account the institutional context and other control measures, countries headed by women have gained an advantage in the current crisis,” the researchers concluded.
As of July 27, there are more than 16.1 million people infected with coronavirus in the world, of which more than 645 thousand have died, another 9.2 million have recovered. Most of the infected are in the United States, Brazil, India, Russia and South Africa.
