Women Leaders During COVID-19
Carolina Borjas is a social media strategist and content writer from Chicago, IL. She is currently pursuing an MA in Conflict, Security, and Development at Kings College London. Her broader interests include security, South Asia, diplomacy, and interfaith cooperation.
Abstract
All around the world, leaders are dealing with the ongoing pandemic. From Iceland to Taiwan and Germany to New Zealand, authentic leadership has been a model global model. Aside from these countries, Finland, Norway, and Denmark have made substantial contributions in leadership to control the outbreak of COVID-19. What do all these countries have in common? They all have women in leadership. This piece examines the valuable leadership contributions of women in the context of COVID while showing how the passive leadership traits or "feminine" qualities in leadership can be an asset when dealing with a time of crisis. As demonstrated by Angela Merkel, Tsai Ing-wen, Jacinda Ardern, Katrin Jakobsdóttir, Sanna Marin, and Erna Solberg, effective crisis management requires ‘feminine leadership’.
Feminine Qualities in Leadership
'Feminine leadership' can be defined as a management style adopted by leaders that highlights the importance of empathy, humility, and relationship dynamics in practice. Some leadership traits include tolerance, long-term vision, vulnerability, sustainability, and intuition which put forward soft skills and behaviors to promote a more democratic environment. As recent studies show, those countries with a 'feminine' leadership dealt better with the pandemic than those associated with more traditional aspects of leadership.
Transparency
A transparent leader leads with openness and honesty by sharing information freely and inviting open communication. Leaders who exhibit this trait can generate trust and give those who rely on them a clear sense of direction that enhances accountability. This can be seen in the case of Germany. While seeing a politician speak on national TV might be normalized for many countries, this is not the case for Germany, especially in the case of Chancellor Angela Merkel. Before the pandemic, Merkel would rarely appear on TV. However, her speech on March 18, 2020 grasped the nation's attention. During her speech, Merkel advised people to take this crisis seriously as she stated, "since German unification—no, since the Second World War—no challenge to our nation has ever demanded such a degree of common and united action." While she made no announcements on school and road closures or nationwide curfews, Germany was able to accept the threat of the pandemic's existence. As a result, testing began to receive significant attention. Without pointing fingers or bragging about Germany's efforts, Chancellor Merkel gave the people what they needed to hear: an explanation of the situation and the assurance that their government would support them in overcoming this crisis. Rather than focusing on anger and blaming responses elsewhere, Germany could focus all their energy on fighting COVID-19. Through her transparency traits, Chancellor Merkel fostered a higher level of trust and created an open environment for the press when the people needed it the most.
Purposefulness
Purposeful leadership can be identified as the extent to which a leader has firm commitments, consistent levels of excellence, and a clear vision of desired outcomes. A leader who understands that it takes a meaningful and explicit purpose can prioritize their limited time and energy to assess critical problems effectively. In the case of Taiwan, purposeful leadership was essential to how the pandemic was assessed.
Despite their proximity to the source of the virus and the infectious nature, President Tsai Ing-wen, along with "Team Taiwan," could prevent a massive outbreak. According to Times, as of April 14, 2020, Taiwan had fewer than 400 confirmed cases. This success was due to the resilience of the government, medical staff, the private sector, and everyday citizens. After living through the 2003 SARS epidemic, Taiwan learned its lesson and saw the need to establish a Central Epidemic Command Center to handle prevention measures in January 2020. Aside from this, Taiwan combined its efforts in the medical field with early travel restrictions and quarantine protocols for high-risk travelers to avoid a spike in cases coming from Taiwan. After discovering the first case on January 21, 2020, medical professionals began the process of tracking and tracing the travelers to impose timely quarantine when needed.
Along with the efforts from the lifesaving works of the medical professionals, Taiwan worked alongside the private industry to avoid mass panic buying. The Ministry of Economic Affairs, private machine-tool, and medical-supply companies could ration medical supplies while being unified under "Team Taiwan." Moreover, this period observed market spikes in commodities (such as toilet paper, hand sanitizer, and cleaning products) and high production of medical-grade masks. According to a CNN report, Tsai Ing-wen can send millions of medical supplies to countries that need them the most while combatting COVID-19 effectively in Taiwan.
In addition to President Tsai Angwin's early response efforts, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern of New Zealand took a similar approach and stated on April 27 that they had defeated the outbreak of COVID-19 in New Zealand. After the first six cases in the country, Arden imposed a maximum alert level, imposing self-isolation for people coming back to New Zealand and banning people from entering the country. However, on April 5, after announcing 89 confirmed cases, Arden took measures to close businesses and ban professionals requiring contacts such as hairdressers, salespeople, masseuses, and public gyms facilities from opening. As a result, New Zealand's director-general of health, Ashley Bloomfield, claimed that the number of cases had decreased and reported a small number of new cases. Therefore, this gave New Zealand the confidence to claim that they could eradicate the virus since they could manage it better. In response, the prime minister began to lift bans slowly but advised people who did not need to work to stay home.
Innovation
Innovative leadership is exhibited when innovation and creativity are applied to take different decision-making approaches than what has been typically taken. These leaders assess the current realities and deal with new ways to approach broken paradigms by discarding the ineffective with new ideas or solutions. This can be seen in the case of Iceland, where purposeful leaders moved on to evaluate the approaches to the pandemic.
Iceland has become a hotspot of innovation during the COVID-19. Its Prime Minister Katrin Jakobsdóttir, since the crisis, has lent crucial support towards free testing for all the citizens in Iceland. As reported by France 24, Iceland has tested more than 46,000 people (12% of their population!) for free. Aside from conducting massive free testing, Iceland has introduced an effective tracking system for the virus, which keeps schools open throughout the pandemic.
In addition to Iceland, Finland has stood out by enlisting social media influencers to fight against COVID-19. According to the Guardian, Finland has used mainstream media to inform people "fast, clearly and accurately" throughout the crisis. As government communications director Päivi Anttikoski stated, "We can reach a large part of the public in Finland through official communications and traditional media, but it is clear the authorities' messaging does not always reach all population groups. The cooperation aims to provide better access to information for those difficult to reach through traditional channels. As far as we know, Finland is the only country in the world to have defined social media as 'critical operators' – along with doctors, bus drivers, and supermarket workers." Prime Minister Sanna Marin undertook this project along with PING Helsinki, and Mediapool has allowed social media influencers to reach wider audiences with factual news instead of spreading fake news.
Human Connection
Connection is perhaps one of the essential traits that win leadership as it drives collaboration and promotes knowledge-sharing. These leaders have high levels of self-awareness of others in their sphere of influence and aspire to be authentic. A primary example of a leader with a unique human connection is Norway's Prime Minister.
Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg took into her hands reassuring children over current fears from COVID-19. As Norway's schools began to close, Solberg held a 30-minute press conference for kids. In this press conference, Solberg eased both children and parents of their fears by saying, "It is OK to be scared when so many things happen at the same time." Aside from this, Solberg highlighted that "by being home you are helping other people not be contaminated and get sick. It is important for those who already have a disease or who are very old". Solberg did not simplify her language by addressing her audience as children; instead, she showed that this crisis affected everyone.
What happens next?
Women leaders have shone as the pandemic has presented a window of opportunity for women in political leadership. Through solid leadership qualities and quick action[1] , the women in this article have left their mark in history. The actions taken by these women during the context of 2020 pandemic will continue to influence the way the world sees women in leadership. In addition, some of the other unintended positive outcomes from these actions may reflect on woman leaders of future generations as we re-think the traditional leadership models to 'build back, better.
Citations:
Carol Hymowitz and Kristi Hedges, 2010, Women Leadership Styles, Forbes, viewed December 2021, < https://www.forbes.com/sites/work-in-progress/2010/05/26/women-leadership-styles/?sh=2439b8217ad8>
Finland enlists social influencers in fight against Covid-19, 2020, The Guardian, viewed December 2020, < https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/01/finland-enlists-social-influencers-in-fight-against-covid-19 >
Here’s how Norway is reassuring children over COVID-19 fears, 2020, The World Economic Forum, viewed December 2020, < https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/03/norway-pm-tells-kids-it-is-ok-to-feel-scared-during-coronavirus/ >
James Griffiths, 2020, Taiwan's coronavirus response is among the best globally, CNN, viewed December 2021, <https://edition.cnn.com/2020/04/04/asia/taiwan-coronavirus-response-who-intl-hnk/index.html>
Justin Davidson, 2020, The Leader of the Free World Gives a Speech, and She Nails It, New York Magazine, viewed December 2021, < https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/03/angela-merkel-nails-coronavirus-speech-unlike-trump.html >
Marc Perelman, 2020, Iceland 'gaining control' over Covid-19, PM tells FRANCE 24, France 24, viewed December 2021, < https://www.france24.com/en/europe/20200427-interview-iceland-gaining-control-over-covid-19-pm-tells-france-24>
Tsai Ing-Wen, 2020, President of Taiwan: How My Country Prevented a Major Outbreak of COVID-19, Times, viewed December 2021, <https://time.com/collection/finding-hope-coronavirus-pandemic/5820596/taiwan-coronavirus-lessons/ >
Scott Neuman, 2020, New Zealand Says It Has Won 'Battle' Against COVID-19, NPR, viewed December 2021, https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2020/04/27/845304917/new-zealand-says-it-has-won-battle-against-covid-19?t=1638556338724
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/03/norway-pm-tells-kids-it-is-ok-to-feel-scared-during-coronavirus/