The science is clear: women-led countries are doing better in the pandemic
- A new comprehensive study has found that women leaders reacted faster, followed the science more rigorously and were more prepared to take economic risks to protect lives than their male counterparts in similar circumstances
As all of us, wherever we live in the world, wrestle with the bleak and corrosive anxieties of a global pandemic, early academic research is offering at least one clear and consistent insight: you are safer if you live in a country governed by a woman.
Most recent, and most comprehensive, is a Liverpool University study led by Professor Supriya Garikipati, with colleague Uma Kambhampati at the University of Reading, which shows that countries led by women were locked down earlier, “followed the science” more rigorously, and as a result, have so far seen half as many Covid-19 deaths.
“Being female-led has provided countries with an advantage in the current crisis,” Garikipati concluded: “Our results clearly indicate that women leaders reacted more quickly and decisively in the face of potential fatalities. In almost all cases, they locked down earlier than male leaders in similar circumstances […] it has certainly helped these countries to save lives.”
The study combed data for 194 countries up to May 19, with just 19 of them led by women. The study excluded Taiwan and Hong Kong – both led by women – because the World Bank (the study’s main source of consistently comparable macro data) covers neither.
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The University of Liverpool study confirms the findings of studies from teams at Trinity College Dublin, and from the Westminster Foundation for Democracy at King’s College London (in conjunction with the Global Institute for Women’s Leadership), both undertaken in May.