Politicians and the ‘baby trap’
Jacinda Ardern discovered she was pregnant only six days away from being announced as prime minister on October 19, 2017.
At first, she and partner Clarke Gayford chose to keep it quiet, but since announcing her pregnancy the 37-year-old has received a mixed response with some feeling ‘‘betrayed’’ by the announcement, accusing her of being ‘‘selfish’’ for putting her needs before her country and that she chose to have her baby at the wrong time and should have ‘‘waited’’ until she wasn’t prime minister.
Others have suggested that due to the pregnancy she will not be ‘‘fit for purpose’’ and cannot possibly handle being prime minister as well as being pregnant. Mainly because you know ... ‘‘baby brain’’?
Ardern’s situation shows the impossible expectations that are placed on women in public life. On the one hand you are vilified if you ‘‘selfishly’’ choose to have children and are vilified for ‘‘selfishly’’ choosing not to have them.
Former Australian prime minister Julia Gillard was mercilessly criticised by her decision to remain childless by fellow politicians Tony Abbott, Mark Latham and George Brandis.
All of them arguing that she could not possibly understand the average Australian woman by her decision to remain childless. British PM Theresa May has also been questioned on her childless status several times.
Women are severely underrepresented in positions of power. This is not anything new.
Corporations often preach about trying to obtain gender equality in management positions but few have asked the question ‘‘what do women want?’’
A common approach is to plonk women in management roles to fill quotas.
This approach was used by the Australian Labor Party to increase female leadership, but are quotas the best way to obtain equality? They certainly are a start, but just like not all men are good managers, not all women are either.
Being an effective manager or leader requires people skills, being able to manage a team, giving constructive feedback. No-one said it was easy.
Just like managers who get plonked into their roles by virtue of ‘‘being there the longest’’. Leadership qualities make good managers. Not gender, not race or the amount of time someone has been with a company.
We do need to overcome the natural bias towards white middleaged men being managers, but not via quotas.
The real reason people find Ardern’s situation hard to digest is that it’s never really been done before.
It’s not the norm for a woman to be prime minister and even more unusual to be pregnant while in the role. Until we start accepting Ardern’s situation as the norm, gender equality won’t ever be achieved.