Traditional views of leadership often associate strong leadership with directness, decisiveness, and dominance, which are stereotypically coded as masculine while perceiving empathy and collaborative orientation-- qualities commonly associated with femininity--as less compatible with effective leadership. However, contemporary research increasingly highlights the importance of empathy in leadership, particularly during crises, which has brought women's leadership into the spotlight. This study employs Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) as a methodological approach, using Fairclough's three-dimensional model as an analytical framework to examine the communicative strategies used by New Zealand's former Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern in her speeches following the 2019 Christchurch mosque shootings. By analyzing six transcripts of her speeches, this study identifies discourse patterns that reveal her persuasive strategies and examines their role in crisis communication. The findings revealed three critical elements of Ardern's persuasive strategies: (1) combining transparency and compassion to foster trust, (2) demonstrating clarity and decisiveness to establish authority, and (3) using motivational and forward-looking discourse to inspire collective action. These elements illustrate how Ardern's empathetic communication built public trust and encouraged compliance, while her directive and decisive language facilitated actionable resolution, which enabled the nation's swift recovery. By critically challenging persistent gender stereotypes in leadership that frame empathy and decisiveness as mutually exclusive traits, this study underscores the transformative potential of empathetic leadership in crisis management and contributes to advancing gender equity in leadership discourse.