Leaders’ rhetoric during crisis: gender differences in leaders’ communication during the COVID-19 pandemic crisis

Abstract

ABSTRACT Leaders’ communication with their publics is a key component in contemporary governance. This is especially true in times of crisis, in which the public relies on their leaders to provide them with the information they need, along with a sense of hope. Traditional studies of leaders’ rhetoric and verbal communication have found gender differences that fit gender role stereotypes, while newer studies present a different reality – a double-voice in which politicians and leaders use both masculine and feminine rhetoric. The COVID-19 pandemic crisis has provided us with a unique opportunity to examine this issue, focusing on leaders’ rhetoric during a crisis. An analysis of 30 speeches made by 10 country leaders (five men and five women) during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic crisis reveals that while leaders use some rhetorical strategies that fit gender communication expectations, they combine them with other strategies that are stereotypically used by the opposite gender. Our findings regarding men and women leaders’ rhetoric during a crisis fit those of newer gender-rhetoric studies that present a usage of both masculine and feminine rhetoric by leaders.