We need to ask if mum Ardern can be PM
MARK REASON
OPINION: The 2018 men’s Australian Open has been vibrant and often unexpected, but how the women’s draw has missed Serena Williams. The first lady of tennis, great athlete though she is, had to withdraw through the complications of having a baby.
Williams is a fit and supremely gifted sportswoman, but little baby Alexis Olympia knocked her out of the defence of her title. Williams has tweeted amusingly about how her struggles to figure out a stroller are harder than saving match point.
Williams also tweeted: ‘‘Teething – aka the devil – is so hard. Poor Alexis Olympia has been so uncomfortable. She cried so much (she never cries) I had to hold her until she fell asleep. I’ve tried amber beads ... cold towels ... chew on mommies fingers ... homeopathic water (lol on that one) but ...’’
Now if a baby can so challenge one of the world’s greatest athletes, then New Zealand is allowed to be concerned for our Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern. But when Mark Richardson initially asked Ardern if it was OK to take maternity leave in office – and Richardson knows something about surviving long periods of fatigue out in the middle – our prime minister was waspish.
Ardern said: ‘‘For other women, it is totally unacceptable in 2017 to say that women should have to answer that question in the workplace. That is unacceptable in 2017. It is the woman’s decision about when they choose to have children.’’
The prime ministership is the great public office. It is the right of any citizen to bring up legitimate concern about a person’s ability to do the job, whether it be Donald Trump’s age or Jacinda Ardern’s maternity.
In the meantime she has answered questions about her own pregnancy, her plans, her time off. Those were unavoidable, but I still don’t see the question of whether it is appropriate for a woman to have a child when prime minister to have been addressed at any length and whether a woman in that position can be expected to do both jobs to the best of her ability. I don’t see that the potential physical and mental repercussions have been addressed. I only hear plans
Being a mother is one of the greatest and most demanding jobs a human will ever do. So is being a prime minister. Do we seriously expect anyone to fully function in both at the same time? Still we await for Serena, a year younger than Ardern, to return to tennis.
People have pointed to Benazir Bhutto, the first woman to take on the dual roles of new motherhood and prime ministership. It is not a good comparison. During the first 20 months of her premiership Bhutto failed to pass a single piece of legislation.
Her government looted millions from the treasury. Amnesty International accused her government of having one of the worst records of torture and murder. Bhutto backed the Taliban takeover in Kabul. Pakistan was ranked the third most corrupt country in the world during what some described as Bhutto’s ‘‘monarchy’’.
At one point Bhutto even said, crossly: ‘‘The sun is in the wrong direction.’’
This is not evidence that Ardern will struggle to do the job, but it sure isn’t evidence in her favour as some have suggested.
No-one could logically claim that Ardern can be sure of performing to the best of her ability as PM, no matter how much help she gets from the first man of fishing and stay-at-home dad Clarke Gayford. Mothers and doctors will tell you that the last stages of pregnancy and of motherhood are potentially perilous times, physically and emotionally.
There are hormonal highs and there are hormonal lows. The massive boost in red blood cells experienced by expectant mothers, a boon to athletic endurance, led to the rumour that the East Germans were impregnating some of their women athletes and then ordering abortions. Motherhood is a wild ride of ups and downs. Some mothers suffer physical difficulties; others, like Williams, suffer horrendous depression.
And some mothers bound out the other side heroically. Catriona Matthew, a Scottish golfer, had ‘‘the mother of all victories’’ when she won the 2009 Women’s British Open 11 weeks after giving birth to her second daughter. Runner Liz McColgan gave birth to daughter Eilish in 1990, who herself has gone on to become an Olympic athlete, and won 10,000m gold at the world championships the following year.
But if women truly want equality, then the decisions around unborn children are not solely the woman’s prerogative. Biologically it is not an equal world, so it isn’t going to happen. But people do have a right to raise concerns about whether pregnancy and childbirth will affect the role of prime minister, because her abilities affect us all.
Well, actually, we already know that it will, because Ardern is taking maternity leave. That means that Winston Peters, who the country did not vote for, will be prime minister for six weeks, longer if there are complications. That means New Zealand will also have an inexperienced foreign minister in troubled global times.
We all have a right to discuss Ardern’s fitness to be prime minister. That is equality. So when Ardern tries to shut down the conversation, just as Bhutto shut down some of her country’s newspapers, our leader is abusing free speech and her role as prime minister.
James Shaw, the Green Party co-leader, said, ‘‘That a woman can be the prime minister of New Zealand and choose to have a family while in office says a lot about the kind of country we are and that we can be – modern, progressive, inclusive, and equal.’’
It says nothing of the sort. I can’t give birth and be prime minister.
And if I could, I would step down in the knowledge that I was potentially compromising two of the most important jobs on God’s earth. It is a discussion that a modern, progressive, inclusive and equal country should be having.
And just in case anyone is wondering, no, I didn’t vote National.