FACING THE IMPACTS OF COVID-19: DO WOMEN-LED GOVERNMENTS HAVE A BETTER RESPONSE IN PREVENTING THE PANDEMIC?

The COVID-19 outbreak began at the end of 2019, the epidemic, with its epicenter in Wuhan, China, affected more than 56 million people around the world. From the beginning, it was observed that certain countries showed better responses in countering the disease, and some of them were headed by women, such as New Zealand, Norway, Denmark, Germany, among others. Thus, the article aims to compare prevention practices against COVID-19 in countries governed by women. The methodology is descriptive, and data were collected through documental research, the sample consists on the 30 countries with the highest Human Development Index (HDI) in the world, and Brazil, as one of the countries most affected by the disease. The results suggest that of the 31 countries in the sample, among the 10 with the lowest absolute numbers of COVID-19 cases, 5 of them are governed by women: New Zealand, Hong Kong, Greece, Estonia, and Iceland. Of the 10 countries with the lowest number of cases of COVID-19, 4 are led by women: Hong Kong, New Zealand, Greece, and Estonia. Hence, it is assumed that women world leaders seem to have done a better job at confronting COVID-19.