Amid the coronavirus pandemic a clear trend has emerged: nations led by women have been more successful at containing – and in the case of New Zealand even apparently eradicating – outbreaks of the virus.

From Germany's Angela Merkel and New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, to Finland's Sanna Marin, Norway's Erna Solberg, female leaders have reportedly fought COVID-19 outbreaks more efficiently than many others, registering lower cases and lower death rates.

A full analysis of how these leaders succeeded under the unprecedented circumstances would involve several factors - including a more inclusive and diverse society backing them up – and it's risky to generalize and say women leaders always perform better than male leaders in times of crisis.

But from a leadership perspective, the success of these women represents the victory of a style of leadership that's completely different from the ideal of the political strongman – a different approach that proved to be beneficial in handling the coronavirus emergency.

"Not every woman has done well and got good results. But there are clearly absolute stars among the women leaders," said New Zealand former Prime Minister Helen Clark.

"I think what differentiates them firstly is empathy, putting health and human security at the very heart of their response. They have been driven by values. It hasn't been 'We've got to save the economy.' They've been wise enough to know you can't save an economy if your people are ground down by a pandemic. They've stuck to a plan. They've listened to experts. They've acted on advice, using good judgment. They've communicated extremely well. They've engaged the population of the countries in a journey with them.

"Prime Minister Erna Solberg of Norway even held a children's consultation, acknowledging that children get worried and concerned in events like these."

Getting to the top is so hard to achieve for women, that once a woman reaches the leadership position she's incredibly resilient and task-focused, says Clark. The number of female leaders across the world has grown significantly recently, but it is still very small. Most of the world's nations have never had a female leader.

"You have to broaden the base of participation of women in the political systems," says Clark.

"The challenge is to get more women into electable positions on their party's lists or in their safe seat constituencies. And then to support them, to move up the ranks to the point where they are in a shooting position for leadership, if you like. So that first rung on the ladder, being able to get into the political system and be competitive is very important."