Did female country leaders outperform men during the COVID-19 crisis? Such a claim appeared in multiple newspaper articles published during the first wave of the pandemic. The main debate in research addressing gender-based differences in leadership considers whether such differences are the result of institutionally induced stereotypes and culture or the result from inherent difference in characteristics and leadership style between men and women. A conclusive and clear picture has not yet emerged. Recent research of leadership performance during the COVID-19 crisis also provided inconclusive results.
By using key methodologies, different than other recent research projects, including focusing only on European countries, covering multiple performance dimensions of health, economy, and public support, and by analyzing at pandemic waves / sub-waves levels, we have found a significant effect of country leader’s gender on country performance during the COVID-19 pandemic. There is a significant difference in health performance and in attaining public support favoring female leaders. Female leaders improved their performance between the pandemic waves not only absolutely but also relatively in comparison to male leaders. We have found an indication that the key factor creating the health difference is the ability of female leaders to slow the number of infections and deaths during the first phase of the wave.
We believe that attention to empirical evidence that challenges subjective cultural beliefs about gender and leadership can have crucial implications on the success in containing future global health crisis.