The gender of leaders is immaterial
Do people prefer feminine empathy in a crisis, but masculine assertiveness when the going gets tough? The University of Geneva has been investigating.
She was regarded as a commanding leader in times of crisis. New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern demonstrated empathy and determination – not just during the Covid-19 pandemic, but also after the terrorist attack of 15 March 2019 on two mosques in Christchurch. When she attended Friday prayers a week later, she wore a headscarf in solidarity. | Image: Keystone/AP Photo/Vincent Thian
Women leaders such as Jacinda Ardern, the former Prime Minister of New Zealand, often coped better with the challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic than their male counterparts. The media attributed this to supposedly feminine characteristics like empathy. A study conducted by the University of Geneva has investigated whether this means that the general population would rather have a woman at the helm during societal crises. To this end, they got almost 1,700 test subjects to elect the head of a fictitious task force.
“The result was unexpected”, says the lead author, Ruri Takizawa. While most of the people surveyed believed that the position in question required stereotypical female characteristics, they just as often chose a man as a woman. The same was true for another fictitious job that required what are stereotypically regarded as more male characteristics, such as assertiveness. “It seems that traditional gender stereotypes might actually play a more minor role in politics than expected”, says Takizawa.
