The impact of intergovernmental relations in COVID management on women’s leadership
Abstract
Most research on multilevel governance from a gender perspective has taken gender equality policies as the dependent variable (Haussman et al., 2010). In contrast, research that analyses the presence of women as protagonists in multilevel governance, their forms of action or the impact of their actions on the outcome is less frequent (Gushchina and Kaiser, 2021). This research addresses this perspective in a pandemic situation, where urgency and interdependence stimulate the rule of executive participation.
The limited presence of women in intergovernmental management of the pandemic is closely related to their limited presence in governments. The executive, and in particular the head of government, remains a closed terrain for women. Currently, almost half of the countries in the European Union have never had a female prime minister (Novo-Arbona, 2020). However, federal and decentralised systems have been a way for women to gain access to the heads of executive power, as their presence is more common in the heads of constituent units. The percentage of women ministers has also increased considerably, and they have occupied more ‘prestigious’ ministries such as foreign affairs, defence or the economy. Traditionally, and still today, their presence is more common in care-related ministries such as social services or health (Kroeber and Hüffelmann, 2021). This article identifies the main multi-level decision-making bodies since the declaration of the pandemic, the presence of women in them and their role within the organisations.
Keywords
gender, federalism, intergovernmental relation, COVID-19References
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