Wednesday 3 June 2020
12:00pm – 1:00pm

Leadership in crisis: does gender matter?

This event will start at 12pm BST (British Summer Time)

Organised by the Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation

Fully booked

Unprecedented challenges brought on by the coronavirus pandemic have tested the leadership of organisations, companies and countries around the globe. The current crisis has brought society together to combat the virus in some countries, while it has exacerbated social divisions in other countries. What are the key elements in successful leadership in crisis? Does gender matter? OECD studies in European countries indicate a positive correlation between the percentage of female ministers and the level of trust in the government. Some argue that many countries led by women have handled the current crisis more smoothly.

In this webinar, we discussed leadership in times of crisis. Avivah Wittenberg-Cox shared examples of female crisis leadership and discussed what their responses have in common. Yumiko Murakami, Head of the OECD Tokyo Center, shared the OECD’s analysis on the role of trust in government, how gender diversity can impact the policy-making process, and addressed the provocative question: does “female” leadership work better in time of crisis?

A summary of this webinar can be found here:

Leadership in Crisis Webinar Summary

Avivah Wittenberg-Cox has published a range of articles on this and related subjects; please follow the links below to find out more.

About the contributors

Avivah Wittenberg-Cox

Avivah Wittenberg-Cox is a global expert on all things gender balance. She is the CEO of 20-first, a global consulting firm working with companies interested in capturing the competitive advantage of gender, nationality, and generational balance. Her ground-breaking thought leadership is accessible through several seminal books and regular contributions to Harvard Business Review and Forbes. She’s done several TEDx talks, has been recognized by ELLE Magazine as one of the Top 40 Women Leading Change and was recently celebrated by PWN Global with a Lifetime Achievement Award for Gender Balanced Leadership. Her book, Why Women Mean Business, was awarded the MANPOWER Best Book of the Year Prize.

Yumiko Murakami

Yumiko Murakami is the Head of OECD Tokyo Centre. Since Yumiko joined OECD in 2013 as the head of OECD Tokyo Centre, she has been at the forefront of policy discussions between OECD and governments, businesses and academia in Japan and Asia, covering a wide range of economic policy issues. She has been leading discussions with various stake holders in Japan and Asia, particularly in the areas of Corporate Governance, tax guidelines, gender diversity, education, international trade and innovation. Prior to joining the OECD, Yumiko held a number of leadership positions as a Managing Director at Goldman Sachs and Credit Suisse. Yumiko has diverse professional experiences, ranging from banking in New York and London to UN Peace Keep Operations in Cambodia. Yumiko has an MBA from Harvard University, MA from Stanford University and BA from Sophia University. She sits on the Japan Advisory Board of Harvard Business School as well as several advisory committees of the Japanese Government. She is the author of a bestseller book, “Turning Demographic Challenges into Economic Opportunities”. (Japanese only) Ranked #1 at Amazon Japan, economics category.