GENDER AND LEADERSHIP RESPONSE IN COVID-19

Abstract

The study attempts to uncover the gendered construction and understanding of subjects of politics and leadership. It argues that mainstream construction of Covid-19 leadership response as, ‘success of femininity’ and ‘failure of masculinity’ encapsulates naturalisation of ‘essentialist gendered understanding’ of subjects of politics andleadership. By applying theoretical and methodological framework of post-positivist feminist traditions and identity theory, the paper tends to contextualise the origin, source and objectives of gendered lens that juxtaposes femininity with politics and leadership. In essence, the article underscores that a political agents’ leadership response to Covid-19 is a manifestation of his or her social and discursive identities, agent’s understanding of their placement within power hierarchies and internationalisation of ‘essentialist gendered identities’ and argues in favour of reworking political assumptions and identity solutions to construct gender-neutral discourses in politics and leadership.