The role of women leaders in fighting the pandemic: A comparative analysis on Finland, Germany and New Zealand

Since humans have existed, it has been possible to distinguish between men and women in the social sphere. The distinctions made have important effects on determining the roles of individuals and shaping behaviors according to the determined roles. With the perception of gender, individuals were given roles according to their gender and were asked to behave according to those roles. Individuals who do not comply with gender behavior patterns are excluded. In the context of this discrimination, it has been emphasized that women's jobs consist of duties such as taking care of children and cooking within the household, while men have duties such as earning money, participating in politics and doing business, which represent the public sphere rather than the private sphere. The existence of politics associated with the public sphere is seen as equivalent to the existence of people. Because the phenomenon of ruler and ruled has always been a dominant view in societies. It is seen that politics is also in the hands of men, women could not even vote before, and then when they vote, they vote in line with the wishes of the male-dominated structures within the family. In this thesis, it is emphasized that the roles assigned to women by society in the private sphere and the fact that women participate in politics by going beyond the stereotypes determined from the private sphere to the public sphere in the context of gender perception. The field of study of the thesis is to comparatively examine the women leaders struggling with the COVID-19 pandemic with the examples of Finland, Germany and New Zealand countries, and to analyze the attitudes and policies of women leaders during the pandemic period in the context of politics and gender. The study also included the policies implemented by male leaders of the countries of the Netherlands, Australia and South Korea, who successfully managed the pandemic, and a comparative study was conducted with female leaders. The aim of this thesis is to explain the political attitudes and behaviors of female leaders who successfully combated the pandemic in the context of gender and the roles attributed to women, in the context of gender concepts.