Girl Power!

When comparing government responses to the Covid-19 outbreak and the success of these responses, it it clear that the countries who have dealt with the virus most effectively have been those run by women in office. So why is there still such an unequal representation of women in politics globally?

A Forbes article states that "...this pandemic is revealing that women have what it takes when the heat rises in our Houses of State". Angela Merkel, Tsai Ing-Wen and Jacinda Arden are all examples of female leaders who did not hesitate to protect their nations when the pandemic started to take hold. They did not underestimate the virus, they were clear about the severity, imposed restrictions immediately and rolled out mass testing. They also showed empathy and care towards their citizens. 

The result? Female-led countries have had half as many Covid deaths as those with male leaders. New Zealand is now a 'Covid-free country' while the UK's cases and deaths are once again rising exponentially.

For a long time, International Relations as a discipline has been male-dominated. Women have been excluded from analysis as political actors and theories have been developed from the standpoint of men. Dominant concepts in IR such as rationalism render women as invisible. But women leaders have demonstrated their ability to be decisive, rational leaders and the result has been "systematically and significantly better Covid outcomes". 

Therefore, it is vital that binaries of masculinity/femininity and political/personal are broken down so that women are equally represented in politics, for they clearly deserve to be. In years to come when the Covid-19 pandemic is studied academically, it will be interesting to see whether women leaders will finally be represented as equals, if not superior, to men.