#GAReads | Women don't need to 'lean in' like men – men need to lead more like women
photo credit: You X Ventures, via Unsplash
“Women don't need to 'lean in' like men – men need to lead more like women”:
Because just 19 countries in the world are led by women, it’s hard to draw meaningful conclusions about leadership efficacy just by looking at overall Covid-19 cases and deaths. Instead economists from the University of Liverpool and the University of Reading “matched” female-led countries with their closest neighbour based on socio-demographic and economic characteristics considered important in the transmission of coronavirus. Germany, for example, was matched with the UK; New Zealand with Ireland. Bangladesh, which has a female prime minister, was compared with Pakistan. Serbia, which has a female and openly gay prime minister, was compared with Israel.
“Nearest neighbour analysis clearly confirms that when women-led countries are compared to countries similar to them along a range of characteristics, they have performed better, experiencing fewer cases as well as fewer deaths,” the study’s authors declared. “This is true whether we consider the nearest neighbour… or even five neighbours.”