After an ever-so-brief period of campaigning, political rivals Jacinda Ardern and Judith Collins went toe-to-toe in the House again this afternoon.
A new study has continued to show that countries that are female-led have suffered half as many Covid-19 deaths compared to male leaders.
Female leaders including New Zealand's Jacinda Ardern, Germany's Angela Merkel, Taiwan's Tsai Ing-wen and Denmark's Mette Frederiksen have been praised for their swift action to try toeradicate Covid-19 - but what did they do differently compared to male leaders?
An analysis of 194 countries, published by the Centre for Economic Policy Research and the World Economic Forum, shows that women leaders acted "more quickly and decisively" to save lives by implementing lockdowns in their countries early.
This decision led to "systemically and significantly better" outcomes for their citizens than countries led by men, the research suggested.
Researchers at the universities of Liverpool and Reading analysed the different policies leaders put in place to combat the pandemic to May 19.
A new study has continued to show that countries that are female-led have suffered half as many Covid-19 deaths compared to male leaders. Photo / Getty Images
They also compared the total number of coronavirus cases and deaths across the 194 countries, determining that countries that were female-led were "provided with an advantage" during the crisis.
"Our results clearly indicate that women leaders reacted more quickly and decisively in the face of potential fatalities," said Professor Supriya Garikipati, co-author of the study alongside Professor Uma Kambhampati.
"In almost all cases, they locked down earlier than male leaders in similar circumstances.
"While this may have longer-term economic implications, it has certainly helped these countries to save lives, as evidenced by the significantly lower number of deaths in these countries."
To reach this conclusion, the academics considered GDP, total population, urban population density and the number of elderly residents. They also looked at annual health expenditure per capita, openness to international travel and the general level of gender equality.
To be able to make a fair comparison, as only 19 of the 194 countries are led by women, researchers created "nearest neighbour" countries with similar population sizes.
Female-led New Zealand was paired with male-led Ireland, while female-led Germany was paired with male-led Britain and female-led Bangladesh paired with male-led Pakistan.
Female-led New Zealand was paired with male-led Ireland.
On May 19th, New Zealand had cumulated 1503 Covid-19 cases in total, compared to its "nearest neighbour" country Ireland which had a whopping 23,444 cases.
New Zealand also fared better with deaths, with the death toll reaching 21 on May 19th, where Ireland's death toll reached 1557 at that time.
"Nearest-neighbour analysis clearly confirms that when women-led countries are compared to countries similar to them along a range of characteristics, they have performed better, experiencing fewer cases as well as fewer deaths," Garikipati said.
While this may play into gender stereotypes, Garikipati argued that "while women leaders were risk-averse with regard to lives, they were prepared to take significant risks with their economies by locking down early".
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, right, pictured with a then-pregnant New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern. Photo / Getty Images
She added: "It could well be that the relatively late lockdown decisions by male leaders may reflect male risk aversion to anticipated losses from locking down the economy."
The researchers noted "several incidents of risky behaviour" by men, including Boris Johnson's claim he was shaking hands with "everybody" in a hospital with coronavirus patients weeks before he became perilously ill with Covid-19.
The evidence also suggests that the "empathetic and decisive" communication style by women improved the immediate outcomes from the pandemic striking their nations.
Countries led by females have also been a lot quicker to flatten the curve of the virus, the experts found.
It found that male-led countries had nearly six times more Covid-19 deaths. Even when analysing data per capita, female-led countries still came out better, with 1.6 times less fatalities.
The average excess mortality per million population was 4.8 in countries led by women and 21 in countries led by men.
Nations with women at the helm were also quicker to go into lockdown because, the experts say, they "prioritised public health over the economy".
The same researchers also found that female-led countries such as New Zealand have better levels of social and income equality, prioritising human needs in their policies.
