Women are continuously underrepresented in authorship of scholarly publications. 1) The authorship positions as first -, last and corresponding author, and 2) performance as citations and Altmetric records of published papers are indicators of leadership qualities of the authors. Comparative leadership qualities of women authors were calculated using odds ratios. The proportion analysis was performed to get comparative contributions and per article citations and Altmetric records to understand the quality of publications. Information about scholarly publications was downloaded from Dimensions and data about names and gender was collected from different online sources. Author’s gender was detected based on first name. The proportions of women authorship as first, last and corresponding author were calculated to understand the share of women in scholarly publications. Women show underrepresentation in authorship of scholarly publications on COVID-19. Female-to-male odds ratio was calculated for these authorships and the performance was calculated of research papers authored by women as first and last authors. Female-to-male odds ratios calculated for 1) women authorships as first author, 2) citations, and 3) Altmetric tracking records for articles authored by women as first author were more than 1. Further, 1) women authorship as last- and corresponding authors and 2) citations and Altmetric tracking records for articles authored women as last author show calculated value were less than 1. All these ratios were considered as indicators of women leadership in scholarly publications on COVID-19. Leadership index was calculated to understand the level of women leadership in this field. Calculated leadership index for women (7.11) shows leadership qualities of women authors. Financial support provided was almost equal for research reported in women and men first authored papers. The field is very new; it is as active and challenging area of research for social justice and welfare society. The method and results reported in the paper is useful for preparation of research policies and monitoring the research projects, grants with feminist approach.

Leading authorships and article performance are indicators of leadership qualities.

Female-to-male odds ratio of women authorships was used to estimate the comparative contribution.

Citations and Altmetric records were used to understand the academic performance.

Leadership index was calculated to estimate women leadership in scholarly publications.

Women authors show leadership in scholarly publications on COVID-19.