In a recent Forbes.com article entitled Why Have Women Leaders Excelled At Fighting the Coronavirus Crisis?, the author, Stephanie Denner, discusses the correlation between the countries with the greatest success in combatting the coronavirus and the gender of their leaders—you guessed it, all female. These leaders include
- Jacinda Ardern, Prime Minister of New Zealand;
- Angela Merkel, President of Germany;
- Tsai Ing-wen, President of Taiwan; and
- Mette Frederiksen, Prime Minister of Denmark.
In providing examples of specific actions taken by each, Denner suggests that it are these female leaders who have “demonstrated to be the most decisive—and calm . . . .” Rather than exhibit the more typical “all-knowing” and “invulnerable” style of leadership, these ladies took a hybrid approach that focused both on their individual leadership strength and their understanding that they, as an individual leader, do not have all of the answers. They all understood that a successful defense against a “crisis of this magnitude” involved not only consulting with a team of experts, including public health experts and scientists, but also taking decisive action when necessary. While this may seem obvious in theory, as the author points out, it is hard to achieve in practice. Denner further highlights that each leader was able to set aside their egos and act not only for “their own people and country but for society as a whole” and also have the fortitude to act based upon the evidence, even if there was no way to be sure it was the right course of action.
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