Clark: PM shows ‘no doors are closed for women’

Former Prime Minister Helen Clark has praised Jacinda Ardern for showing that “no doors are closed for women”.

Clark wrote in an opinion piece of the Guardian in the UK that the couple’s new baby had “considerable significance” for the country as a whole.

“Ardern becomes only the second serving prime minister in history to give birth. As well, she is not married to her partner,” Clark wrote.

“Conventional wisdom may have said that this combination of factors would not have been helpful to a political career at the highest level. Fortunately, that has proved to be wrong,” Clark added.

She points out that Ardern has proved the naysayers wrong and, alongside stay-at-home dad Clarke Gayford, is redefining family stereotypes.

“The signal this sends is that this is life in the 21st century.”

The former PM said the new mum is a “remarkable woman who crashes through glass ceilings with apparent ease”.

She also commended Gayford for taking on the role of primary carer for the foreseeable future.

“For young women, the example Ardern is setting is an affirmation that they too can expect to have that choice. For young men, Gayford being the full time carer of a baby sends a powerful message that they too can exercise that choice.”

While many around the world would call this revolutionary, Clark wrote, in New Zealand this is simply “evolutionary”.