There are many things our Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern will need to focus on as we head into the new year. This will be a tough election year, which may or may not deliver her a third term as our leader, a worldwide recession is forecast, and we’re well aware of Covid and its long tail still affecting our lives.
But there are also some positives she will focus on. She has a wedding to partner Clarke Gayford to reorganise and enjoy, her daughter Neve will turn five and start school, and for the first time in history, our Parliament has 50 per cent female representation.
New Zealand led the world in 1893 when women won the right to vote in the hard-fought suffrage battle and it has taken until now to be equally represented in Government. Only five other countries in the world have reached this landmark, according to the United Nations.
“I feel extremely excited to be part of that,” says a joyful Jacinda, who was at an event at Parliament attended by current and former women MPs to celebrate this milestone a few days after our interview.
She recalls a conference where Marilyn Waring – who, at 23, was the youngest MP elected to Parliament in 1975 – was speaking. “I was thinking, ‘What must it have been like in her days in Parliament?’ when she said something which really stuck with me. She was answering a question from a woman in the audience and she said, ‘There are two types
