Jacinda Ardern by Supriya Vani

Author:Supriya Vani [Vani, Supriya and Harte, Carl A.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780861540310
Publisher: Oneworld Publications
Published: 2021-03-30T00:00:00+00:00

23

Woman of Mettle

Open, patient with journalists (sometimes to the point of indulgence), authentic and approachable as Jacinda Ardern may be, there are limits to her charm. A reporter would find them less than one day after she became leader, over a key feminist principle – one that goes to the very heart of women’s rights.

Perhaps best described as a practical feminist, Ardern might be a feminist in the same way as she was a Mormon: feminism is simply a part of her, unobtrusive as it is intrinsic. Strong, independent, accomplished women who might be classified as benevolent matriarchs are to be found in her family tree as in her career: Gwladys Ardern and Kate Wiltshire, Helen Clark and Annette King. Nevertheless, she has had to deal with the gamut of issues affecting women, plus the added strain and magnification of her life in the public eye.

Ardern is acutely aware of what her women predecessors, Clark and Jenny Shipley, understood. Shipley herself commented, ‘If Helen Clark and I took the bait every time someone fusses about our hair or our glasses or our clothing, we’d spend a lot of time on it.’ Add to that minor sexist infractions, which Ardern shrugs off as good-humouredly as she does personal jibes. And consider people’s attention, which is a valuable commodity in politics, not to be wasted on trivialities.

When, on a television panel in August 2015, the former rugby league coach Graham Lowe described Ardern as ‘a pretty little thing’, there were howls of disgust. It was a comment straight out of a 1950s black-and-white television variety show. The presenter, Hilary Barry, tweeted, ‘Rest assured he won’t leave [the studio] without bruised shins.’ Ardern simply replied, ‘I thank you Hilary. I hope your shoes were pointy.’ She let the matter rest there, later saying, when the furore over the comment had settled down, ‘I didn’t think it was a big deal. It just exploded around me. I thought the response [Lowe] got was disproportionate.’1

Even when she was offended, Ardern refused to rise to the bait. A couple of months before Lowe’s gaffe, in June 2015, she found herself on the receiving end of a sexist remark – in Parliament, no less. When she asked Minister for Small Business Craig Foss a pointed question, to ‘confirm . . . that there was nothing new in the Budget for small business other than . . . the survey he just announced’, Foss replied with cringeworthy, patronising smarm. ‘I welcome the member’s megawatt smile and sparkling brown eyes,’ he said.2

Along with Ardern’s ire, Foss earned himself a well-deserved rebuke from the Speaker of the House for his unprofessional behaviour. Knowing the minister had intended to rile her and deflect attention from her questions, Ardern didn’t bite back. She felt strongly enough about the incident, though, to mention it in an interview more than a year later.

Ardern usually brushed off offensive remarks and sexism with good humour. When during David Cunliffe’s leadership she was portrayed in a Southland

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