The world is in a desperate need of great leaders whether in business or in politics. Women are often dynamic leaders of change. Women are gradually making their leadership presence felt in entrepreneurship, politics, education, engineering, and heath among other fields at regional, national and global levels. Women are now resolved to break the traditional glass ceiling that barred them entering leadership positions even if they possessed requisite skills and talent to occupy them and are constantly evolving and reaching new milestones in the modern world. Still the disturbing fact is that the overall percentage of women in senior leadership roles in business is low. For example, only 5% CEOs of major corporations in the US are women and this rate is seemingly declining globally because of many factors that lead to dearth of women at senior levels. For centuries, there have been cultural biases against women and stereotypes. Some of them are going away slowly. Since 2015, number of women in senior leadership has grown particularly in C-suite where the representation of women has increases from 17% to 21%.  A Harvard Business School report on the male dominated venture capital industry found that “the more similar the investment partners, the lower their investments performance”. This provides a hint to diversify the types of stakeholders including across gender lines. The emergence of female leaders can become a centripetal force for the betterment of the world.

We are seeing examples of female leaders emerging from across the generations to cross weave their knowledge and drive for larger changes.  If we take the environment and the issue of climate change as examples, Jane Goodall is standing alongside teenage activists like Greta Thunberg who has gained international recognition for promoting views on climate change.

Leaders of the world have spent the past few months facing real time leadership test both in business and politics in the full view of an impatient global audience. It is evident that countries led by women as leader seem to have been particularly successful in fighting the Coronavirus.  It is claimed their superior performance reflects in leadership potential. Countries with women in leadership have suffered six times fewer confirmed death than other countries. Around the world women are shining through outstanding leaders as the COVID-19 pandemic from New Zealand and Denmark to Iceland. Examples in countries like Germany which under its pragmatic Chancellor Angela Merkel tackled the pandemic efficiently. The case of Finland PM Sanna Maria who helms a coalition government of five parties, also shows the better approach taken by women as leaders. These are evidenced when we have witnessed not only much fewer fatalities in these nations than other countries but also saw effective containment of the pandemic without much impact on economy. Contrast this with India, where machismo failed to contain the pandemic and the economy has been decimated with a historic contraction rate.

Among smaller, high tech and wealthier economies like the Nordics, Switzerland and countries like Taiwan stand out for being female led nations who handle the crisis. Taiwan president Tsai ing-wen, with her aggressive intervention measures has limited the outbreak of cases and death. It was one of the first countries to ban any flights coming from China to prevent the spread of Covid19.  The US State department cites Taiwan’s coronavirus success in a calling for Taiwan to be given observer status in WHO world health assembly.

Germany with 83 million citizens has had its share of outbreak of cases but fortunately the death rate has been very low per million. All of this was possible due to capable handling of pandemic by German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Her clear communication and the approach of a scientist running the country made Germany muddle through the crisis. As a result she had managed the outbreak well with rational decision-making which boosted the trust the government enjoys among the population.

New Zealand PM Jacinda Ardern has provided strong leadership example during COVID-19. Her leadership style is characterised with empathy which is needed in crisis situation. Her message to the public was clear and consistent. Her approach is not just resonating with her people on emotional level but it has put the country on track for success against coronavirus pandemic. She was clearly stating out the steps taken by the government asking for inputs from experts among the public and updating on the crisis management from time to time. She was unlike the chest thumpers in Delhi who televise themselves just to put forth their one sided opinions without any inputs from experts. Jacinda Ardern has never been afraid to face media during the crisis.

Four of five Nordic countries are led by women. These countries have lower death rates from corona virus compared to the rest of the Europe.  Finland PM Sanna Marin, is the world’s youngest leader but she has an 85% approval rating among Finns for her preparedness for pandemic, with very few deaths in a population of 5.5 million.

Iceland PM Katrin Jakobsdottir governs a small island country of only 360,000 people and her early intervention, aggressive contact tracing and quarantining suspected coronavirus cases not only contained the disease in that country but also has ramifications and learning outcomes for the rest of world.

India has a history of electing and sending female leaders to top positions. The president of FICCI in India is a woman. Indira Gandhi was known by her contemporaries as the only ‘man in Indian politics’. She was not afraid of the western pressure when in 1971 she intervened in East Pakistan to stop the atrocities carried out by the army under Yahya Khan. That bold move not only stopped the gross human rights violations, but also led to the birth of the nation Bangladesh. Noor Inayat Khan was a lady from the lineage of Mysore Nawabs Haider Ali and Tipu Sultan. She was a prominent spy from India who worked in Special Operations Executive to uncover the secrets of the Nazi ruled Germany during World War-II. Other prominent examples of Indian women are Chief Scientist of WHO, Soumya Swaminathan and Chief Economist of IMF, Gita Gopinathan who are providing crucial leaderships in the global arena during this pandemic.

It is too early to say definitively which leaders will emerge as having taken enough of right steps to control the spread of the virus and saving lives. But examples above show a substantial chunk of leaders were actually women who acted early and decisively. Women leaders have shown clarity in their decisions and policies. This success is inspiring for other women, given the challenges many of them face while progressing towards leadership role. Women success may still offer valuable lessons about what can help countries not just during this crisis, but in upcoming future.

According to Global Gender Gap Report 2020, only 36% senior roles and 18.2% top managers are women at present. There is still a 31.4% average gender gap that remains to be closed globally. World Economic Forum aims to achieve gender parity in leadership by 2030.  India slipped to 122th spot from its earlier 108^th position in Global Gender Gap Index 2020 published by World Economic Forum which covered 153 economies.

With the COVID-19 outbreak a harsh spotlight has been shone on the neglected gender equality gaps.  It is an urgent time for us to recognize that the world is in need of more women leaders and proportional representation of women at all the levels. The disproportionate number of women leaders succeeding in controlling this pandemic should show us that gender equality is critical to global public health and international security.

The survival of our planet requires new thinking and strategies. We are in a pitched battle between the present array and mismanagement of resources and wrong attitudes and a future struggling to be born in a chaotic world. Most of the problems in the world came from old people holding onto the positions of power. Diversity is absolutely an asset. With diversity you can bring different ways of looking at the world, analysing issues and offering solutions.  Studies have time and again shown us that women lead differently and empathically and that they are apt in creating different mind-sets. So empowering women is not about political correctness, it is about improving future outcomes.

The author is a student member of Amity Centre of Happiness.

Biswarup Mukhopadhyay has given important inputs for the article.