Jacinda Ardern says she has 'slept well for the first time in a long time' and has no regrets after her shock decision to step down as Prime Minister.
Opinion by Judith Woods
OPINION:
WOW. I mean, wow. Who knew everybody cared so very much about New Zealand politics? Since Jacinda Ardern announced she was stepping down as prime minister because she had “nothing left in the tank” we’ve all summoned up quite a strong opinion.
Is the 42-year-old making a courageous girl-boss stand or bringing the feminist cause to its knees? Too weak to rule or too wise to fail? In her own words, she is leaving because: “With such a privileged role comes responsibility – the responsibility to know when you are the right person to lead and also when you are not. I know what this job takes. And I know that I no longer have enough in the tank to do it justice. It’s that simple.”
I’m not sure if she then got down on one knee in front of the cameras and asked the father of her child to marry her, but that would definitely be in the film version. I know this because I watch a shocking number of made-for-TV romances on remote channels and the narrative arc is reassuringly familiar: a successful woman hellbent on changing the world discovers that true happiness resides right back in her small hometown with the handsome odd-job man (who is secretly the heir to the town as his father owns it), opening a bakery and doing the nursery run. Aaah.
Jacinda Ardern during a press conference after her election win in 2017. Photo / Mark Mitchell
There’s no early indication that Ardern is going to embrace kiwi (the fruit not the bird) cupcakes but, now she’s quit, she says she is going to tie the knot with her partner. Is that progressive or the polar opposite? First things first: my husband’s reaction to the news was from the heart: “OMG what terrible thing is about to be made public? I hope it’s not a sex tape.”
I put his mind at rest. “No, she has a 4-year-old. That sort of thing is over. Forever, if she’s got any sense.” Of course, I also had my fingers crossed that Ardern wasn’t about to be outed for some terrible random misdemeanour, like Finnish PM Sanna Marin, who was first dubbed the “coolest politician in the world” and then castigated for dancing a smidge too wildly at a private party in 2022.
Finland's Prime Minister Sanna Marin arrives for an EU summit in Brussels. Photo / AP
Marin, 36, was forced to apologise and remains in post. But, like Ardern, she has a more favourable image abroad than she does at home. Back in 2016, Ardern became the youngest female head of government in the world when she was elected prime minister at the age of 37. A year later, she became the second elected world leader ever to give birth while in office, after Pakistan’s Benazir Bhutto in 1990.
Labour through and through, she was decisive – critics say dogmatic – about the things that mattered to her: the draconian Covid lockdown, crime policies decried as too soft and a full-throttle approach to climate-change measures. Domestically, her polling was spiralling downwards and with the October 2023 national election in prospect, there’s a suspicion she jumped rather than face defeat.
But that’s a calculation all politicians make at some point and is therefore by-the-by. Far more interesting is the way she worded her resignation and that blunt admission about having “nothing left in the tank” – although, given her eco-credentials, surely she should be running on some sort of solar-powered battery?
Sorry to nitpick because, in truth, it is vanishingly rare for any politician to admit they are a spent force. Why, if Liz Truss had only realised on day three that her tank wasn’t just empty but on fire, she could have spared us another 41 days of bedlam and economic disaster.
Clinging onto power without dignity is the norm. Even leaders who are unloved, unwanted and under intolerable pressure usually have to be “persuaded” to step down. That’s why the Conservative’s 1922 Committee has such a big knife drawer – for the back-stabbing. A nasty business but it has to be done. Even to Boris.
If we assume that Ardern was being entirely honest in ‘fessing up to her exhaustion, what message does it send out about women in power? That they aren’t cut out for the challenges? That by virtue of their biology, a healthy work-life balance is beyond them? Cries have already gone up that her words – not necessarily her actions – will put off young women who might otherwise have striven to reach high office.
I disagree. Aside from the fact anyone who can be so easily discouraged would never get very far in the bear pit of politics anyway, there’s a lot to be said for (brace yourself, elected members everywhere) honesty. Ardern’s address to her nation contained no flim-flam about pursuing other projects or relishing fresh challenges and, in that respect, it was downright radical. She simply admitted she was no longer able to juggle the pressures of the job with her family life.
It should happen more often. Young women need to know that “having it all” isn’t everything it’s cracked up to be. Men never use the term – never need to use the term – about themselves because the modern world was built by them and for them. Women are different. We have biological clocks. We have complex emotional lives and are conscious of our caring responsibilities.
Most – but by no means all – have different priorities to men. Sometimes those priorities clash and, when they do, why should we have to pretend? That may be the established (male) way to behave, but why should women have to conform? Equality in the workplace is about accepting differences and not discriminating on that basis. Bravery is publicly admitting you’ve got nothing left to give and walking away.
Far from doing a disservice to women, Jacinda Ardern has done all of us a favour. She has demonstrated that it is possible – preferable – to tell the truth. Even in politics.
