2024/12/26 by Suze Wilson · 2 voices
Psychology · Social Sciences · #Gender Diversity and Inequality #Gender, Security, and Conflict #Leadership, Courage, and Heroism Studies
paper · doi:10.1080/00323187.2024.2440328
openalex publication_date 2024/12/26 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/01
Crises are often considered the true test of a leader. In popular narratives, being ‘tough’, decisive and suppressing emotions routinely feature as key to crisis leadership. These idealised leader attributes are entwined with dominant ideals of masculinity, influencing public expectations about how leaders should handle crises. Such perceptions cannot be readily ignored; hence, as a woman leading her nation through crisis events Jacinda Ardern was unavoidably incongruent with the manly ‘ideal leader’ prototype. This incongruity was further heightened by her approach which emphasised feminised attributes, such as kindness, empathy and embodied displays of care; the assertive exercise of her agency; and, feminist values, such as a concern for equity, inclusivity and an ethics of care. To better understand the implications of her approach, this article examines Ardern’s leadership of two significant crises – the Christchurch terror attacks and COVID-19 – via a focus on issues of gender. I argue Ardern’s leadership approach both reflected and challenged gendered norms in ways that fostered an effective crisis response, and simultaneously, evoked resistance from those hankering after the manly leader prototype. Her example thus suggests that women’s crisis leadership can incur the double jeopardy of tackling both the crisis itself and navigating their incongruity with a masculinised crisis leader prototype.