When Gender Matters: The Female Leadership Trust Advantage during the COVID-19 Crisis

Abstract

Trusted leadership offers promise for a new era of relational methods of leadership critical for navigating through major crises, such as COVID-19. More so than their male-equivalents, female leaders’ interpersonal skills were found to be critical in earning trust and in reducing the negative effects of crisis situations. Successful leaders also share inherent qualities of honesty, accountability, credibility and transparency essential for building trust. Are women also better than men on these qualities? Our findings reveal significant differences in two key outcome measures between the sampled males and females: A one-standard deviation increase in female self-perceived value for Transparency is associated with a desired Transparency score nearly five times higher than their male counterparts – and reflects a desirability score that is roughly 5% higher than the average female in the sample. Likewise, a one-standard deviation increase in self-perceived Honesty would be associated with a 0.157-point increase in desired Honesty, roughly 121% higher than their male counterparts. Further research should examine the role of women in leading businesses during crises and the benefits organizations can reap by tapping into the qualities and talents that women bring to senior leadership.