Gendering political leadership: hypermasculine leadership and Covid-19

ABSTRACT

Informed by scholarship on gendered leadership, feminist institutionalism, and policy failures, the article asks whether hypermasculine leadership traits – displayed in rhetoric, behavior, and symbols – contributed to a failure in the timely implementation of appropriate policy measures and the clear and effective communication of new rules to citizens to gain their trust and widespread compliance, with an important impact on the effectiveness of early Covid policy responses. From this preliminary study, it appears that the reluctance of hypermasculine leaders to take the pandemic seriously and implement or adhere to mitigation measures, contributed to incoherent policy-making, poor and confused communication, reducing levels of public trust, and contributing to high rates of infection and death. The article also highlights hypermasculine leadership styles’ contextual specificity, by exploring in greater depth how UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s particular form of English elite white hypermasculinity influenced his policy responses and communication strategies.

KEYWORDS:

• Hypermasculine leadership
• feminist institutionalism
• gender
• political leadership
• Covid-19
• policy failure

Acknowledgements

Earlier versions of this paper were given at the FIIN workshop on gender and leadership; the London Gender and Politics seminar; and the Comparative Politics cluster seminar, Dept of Politics, University of Manchester. I thank the participants at these events, my discussant Rosie Shorrocks, the editors of the special issue, and three anonymous referees for their helpful comments.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Camilla Cavendish, Financial Times, January 2, 2021.

2 Boris Johnson’s speech on becoming PM, July 24, 2019 https://ig.ft.com/boris-johnson-prime-minister-speech/.

3 https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/pm-speech-in-greenwich-3-february-2020.

4 https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/pm-statement-at-coronavirus-press-conference-3-march-2020.

5 Financial Times, May 5, 2020.

6 https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/pm-statement-on-coronavirus-17-march-2020.

7 New York Times, April 23, 2020.

8 The Guardian, ‘Who’s Who on the Secret Group’, April 24, 2020.

9 New York Times, Europe said it was pandemic ready’, July 20, 2020.

10 March 3, 2020, https://www.gov.uk/government/news/coronavirus-action-plan-launched.

11 March 17, 2020 https://www.gov.uk/government/news/new-government-structures-to-coordinate-response-to-coronavirus.

12 Neil Ferguson, Evidence to House of Commons Science and Technology select committee, June 10, 2020.

13 The Guardian, July 13, 2020.

14 The Guardian, July 13, 2020.

15 Sky News, July 9, 2020.

16 The Guardian, June 6, 2020.

17 The Guardian, June 1, 2020.

18 Andrew Rawnsley, The Observer, April 26, 2020.

19 New York Times, July 20, 2020.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Georgina Waylen

Georgina Waylen is Professor of Politics at the University of Manchester. She has written and researched extensively on various aspects of gender and politics and political economy. Her books include Engendering Transitions: Women's Mobilization, Institutions and Gender Outcomes (OUP 2007) and she was lead editor of the Oxford Handbook of Gender and Politics (OUP 2014). Between 2012-17 she held a European Research Council Advanced Grant on Understanding Institutional Change from Gender Perspective and she is a Co-Director of the Feminism and Institutionalism International Network (FIIN).