Politics Post Ardern, Marin and Sturgeon

In January, Jacinda Ardern resigned as prime minister of New Zealand saying she “no longer had enough in the tank” to do the job. Currently, just 12 UN member states have female leaders, down from 17 in 2022, Guardian Australian writer Jonathan Yerushalmy reports.

Research from UN Women suggests that at the current rate, gender equality at the highest positions of power will not be reached for another 130 years.

Lecturer in international relations at La Trobe University Dr Federica Caso says that women also come up against stereotypical ideas of how they should behave, particularly from the media.

Ardern faced personal attacks unprecedented in New Zealand politics, Yerushalmy writes. In 2022, police reported that threats against the prime minister had nearly tripled over three years. In her resignation announcement, Ardern said that while threats to her safety were not the basis of her decision to quit, they did “have an impact.”

Original article by Jonathan Yerushalmy, The Guardian, April 5, 2023.