Dual-Gendered Leadership in Public Health Emergency Response of the COVID-19 Pandemic in Atlantic Canada

Traditionally, disaster and emergency management is male dominated while healthcare is female led. The emergency response of public health emergency of the COVID-19 pandemic merged these two domains together. During the first and second waves of COVID-19, a dual-gendered leadership, namely women chief medical officers and men prime ministers, were developed across Canada. Among the four provinces of Atlantic Canada (New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island), three provinces had benefitted from this inclusive emergency response leadership, making the Atlantic region a great example domestically and internationally of successfully mitigating the pandemic while maintaining societal operation. This presentation aims to identify the influence of woman leadership on improving the traditional man-dominated scientific-political communication towards positive COVID-19-driven public health interventions. This study utilized a scoping media coverage review approach, qualitatively examining how gender-inclusive scientific-political cooperation supported effective provincial responses in Atlantic Canada during the first two waves of COVID-19. The review discovers that (1) at the provincial government level, woman leadership of mitigation, advocating, and coordination encouraged provincial authorities to adapt science-based interventions and deliver consistent and supportive public health information to the general public; and (2) at the community level, this DGL advanced community cohesion toward managing the community-based spread of COVID-19. The top-down and bottom-up benefits illustrated in the gender-inclusive scientific-political cooperation inform the future gender-inclusive leadership for the pandemic response.