Women’s Leadership is Associated with Few Better Outcomes and Better Communication

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic highlights the significance of early and effective leadership in a crisis. Leadership research suggests that when faced with uncertainty, people prefer women over men as leaders. We contribute to this literature by examining whether countries led by women had fewer COVID-19 deaths than countries with men leaders, and whether leader’s communications can provide insights into the findings. We use a novel application of the nearest neighbour matching methodology to compare women-led countries with their nearest male-led country. We use publicly available data on COVID-19 deaths from Worldometer as of May 19th, 2020 and find that countries with women leaders had fewer COVID-19 deaths compared to countries with male leaders. To provide insights into the mechanisms underpinning this relationship, we conducted a qualitative analysis of leader’s public speeches made between 15 February and 15 April 2020. Compared to men, women leaders were more urgent in highlighting the crisis and empowering in indicating what citizens can do. We reflect on implications for the effectiveness of leadership in crisis.