World leader, women’s champion a true inspiration
New Zealanders accept that women can do anything, because in our own country women have done anything. They have achieved right across every field of endeavour.
IT’S 7pm in New York, but the day’s not over for Helen Clark. Our first elected female prime minister heads the United Nations Development Programme – making her the third most powerful person at the international organisation – and is in the middle of a global meeting of development programme leaders, a bit of a ‘‘boot camp’’ focused on targets for the next four years, she says.
Today she has been named the most inspirational living Kiwi woman in Westpac’s survey on the aspirations, priorities and views of New Zealand women.
Miss Clark, who has long championed the need for women in leadership roles, says the accolade shows that New Zealanders recognise she has gone all the way.
‘‘It opens up the prospect – ‘maybe I could do that’.’’
All women at the top should aim to inspire others by creating a ‘‘ladder’’ for others to follow them up, she says, while expressing surprise that so few women aim for top positions.
But she is pleased that, in the youngest age group, 19-29, being a general manager, chief executive
Helen Clark, named most inspirational living Kiwi woman
or boss tops the list of aspirations.
‘‘They do have a drive to achieve the top; now the question is can they keep that drive . . . We are limited only by our level of ambition and sense of what’s possible.’’
Kiwi women have led the way in proving that reaching the top is possible, especially compared to when her career began, she says.
‘‘New Zealanders accept that women can do anything, because in our own country women have done anything. They have achieved right across every field of endeavour.’’
The key now is to create a ‘‘critical mass’’ of women who are able to continue taking up leadership positions, she says.
Part of the challenge will be structuring society to allow that to happen – such as through men sharing more of the home duties.
‘‘Are we able to provide the kind of society where people can make a choice to follow a career all theway . . . It’s very, very important for women to have that choice to combine career and family.’’
The biggest task is getting women to aim high and ‘‘not be limited in their assessment of what they can achieve’’, she says.
‘‘If your aim is nothing you’ll hit it every time. You always have to have a goal and be working towards a goal.’’
For Miss Clark, now 64, that is leading her major programme of changes in the development programme, where she is in her second term.
She has also been tipped as a frontrunner for the UN’s top job. Secretary-general Ban Ki-Moon is in his second term and no-one so far has held the office for more than two terms.
When asked if that role is her next aspiration, Miss Clark expertly avoids the question, saying it’s good that debate about the next secretary-general has started. But she does not rule the possibility out.
‘‘I have got my hands full, but there will come a time when I think about the next move,’’ she says.
But for now it’s back to the job at home – a room full of international development leaders eager to talk to their boss.