Let’s get to business: the coronavirus pandemic – perhaps you’ve heard of it? – is wreaking havoc on the economy. In that regard, its victims have disproportionately been women, who account for 55% of lost jobs, fully 10% higher than their male counterparts.

Leading a nation or business through a global pandemic is no easy task. Now more than ever we need leaders who can manage disruptive change, offer comfort and support and provide inspiration to get through this difficult time—attributes that women leaders have in abundance. 

With commerce drying up and the entire service economy grinding to a halt in the wake of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, it is imperative that business leaders, from the captains of industry to mom and pop bakeries, take pains to navigate this crisis carefully and deliberately.

We’re living through unprecedented times. Beyond the fact that there hasn’t been a pandemic of this size and scope in living memory, the efforts to contain it have crippled our economy.

Everyone has been saying it for weeks: we’re on a war footing. Our enemy is not a nation, or an alliance, or a terrorist organization; instead, we’re fighting something invisible and indiscriminating, and the tools we need to combat it are neither exciting nor flashy.