Female World Leaders Hailed as Voices of Reason Amid the Coronavirus Chaos

With the emergence of the coronavirus, the world has stopped in almost all of its activities: businesses are forced to shut down, as well as students and workers are told to stay at home. Everyone is forced to wear face masks, practice social distancing, and to pause their lives. Above all, presidents and prime ministers are plunged into an unexpected war against the crisis, and their leadership has been tested and proven. Among these leaders are four bold, compassionate women who have proven their strong and effective leadership amid the pandemic, and slowed down, if not stopped, the cases of the virus in their country while at the same time tending to the needs of their citizens.

It starts when the virus crises began and the Caribbean leader, Silveria Jacobs strictly forced everyone to “simply stop moving.” The speech that the leader present on April 1 moved everyone to action and inaction to combat the growth of coronavirus cases. The speech as well as the straightforward leadership of Jacobs was recognized by the world and she is one of the leaders who have won recognition as “voices of reason” in this coronavirus crisis in contrast to the approach of most of the prominent male leaders in the world.

The following are the countries, their female leaders, and their ways:

1.Taiwan

the coronavirus started in Wuhan, China, and Taiwan is just miles away from the said country. And although travel between the two countries was prominent before the pandemic, Taiwan’s president, Tsai Ing-wen with her vice-president took strict and immediate efforts to contain the virus and cease all travels coming from abroad. This yields positive results as the country only has six deaths with 500 confirmed cases.

2.New Zealand

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern already had attracted the attention of the many when she was able to respond effectively after a terrorist attack on two mosques that had yielded 51 lives. She is known for her empathetic approach to her leadership and her streams of videos telling children that she counts on the Easter Bunny and Tooth Fairy as “essential workers.” New Zealand has 1,500 confirmed cases and 12 deaths and was able to contain the virus with no new cases that have emerged

3.Germany

After World War II, Germany is back into the battle again, but this time, with a virus. The German chancellor Angela Merkel made a straightforward, direct, personal, and empathetic remark in her public address. Despite the early critiques about her not acting soon enough, Germany has 145,000 confirmed cases with 4,642 deaths with its big population, smaller than its neighboring countries, Spain and Italy.

The Chancellor extended the country’s lockdown and said that the schools would reopen in May.

4.Iceland

Unlike the other countries, Iceland has provided an accessible virus test which anyone can get. This was made possible with a great collaboration between Prime Minister Katrín Jakobsdóttir and deCODE Genetics, a biotechnology company. Their collaboration provided the public mass with a free test. Anyone who wants to get the virus test is given free access even they do not show signs of symptoms.