Motherhood no hurdle to leadership: Ex-New Zealand PM Ardern quits politics

"I leave knowing I was the best mother I could be," Ardern said in her valedictory speech to parliament

By Ainsley Thomson

Former New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern urged women not to let motherhood stand in the way of leadership roles as she bowed out of politics.

“I leave knowing I was the best mother I could be,” Ardern, 42, said in her valedictory speech to parliament Wednesday in Wellington. “You can be that person, and be here.”

Lauded globally for her empathy and strong leadership, Ardern’s resignation in January came as a shock. But she had increasingly become a divisive figure at home and her Labour Party was falling in opinion polls ahead of an election later this year.

 

She will be remembered as a crisis manager who led her country through some of its darkest days during her five-year premiership. They included the Christchurch terrorist attack on two mosques in 2019 that left 51 worshippers dead, a volcano eruption later that year that killed 22 people, and the Covid-19 pandemic.

“Having sadly seen our nation in horrific moments of grief, I’ve concluded that countries don’t move on from tragedy, rather they become part of your psyche,” she said. “But the way these moments weave themselves into our being will be determined by how we confront them.”

Young, female and charismatic, Ardern quickly gained prominence as a torch-bearer for liberal values after exploding onto the world stage in 2017. 

In 2018 she became just the second world leader to give birth in office, after former Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, blazing a trail for working women.

Ardern opened up about her fertility journey in her speech, saying she was told at age 37 that there were a range of factors preventing her becoming pregnant, including stress. 

“I had not long experienced a failed IVF round when I became leader of the Labour Party,” she said. “I thought I had found myself on a path that meant I wouldn’t be a mother. Imagine my surprise when a couple of months later, I discovered I was pregnant.”

When Ardern announced she was stepping down, saying she didn’t have the energy or inspiration to seek re-election, it sparked a wave of global commentary about the abuse and threats female leaders are subjected to. 

It also put the spotlight on a wave of senior-level women leaving their jobs because of exhaustion. Since Ardern’s decision, Nicola Sturgeon resigned as Scotland’s first minister, citing burnout.

Ardern also used her final speech to urge action on climate change.

“Climate change is a crisis. It is upon us. And so one of the very few things I will ask of this house on my departure is that you please take the politics out of climate change,” she said. “There will always be policy differences, but beneath that, we have what we need to make the progress.”

Ardern’s next career step will see her lead New Zealand’s push for greater safeguards against terrorist and violent content online as Special Envoy for the Christchurch Call, a global initiative she set up in the wake of the terrorist attack. She has also joined the board of Prince William’s Earthshot Prize, which rewards climate action and environmentalism.