Did sexism drive Jacinda Ardern from office?

Jacinda Ardern Illustrated | Gettyimages

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is leaving office, shocking the world with the announcement this week that “I no longer have enough in the tank” to do the job of leading her country. Ardern — one of the world’s youngest leaders, who gave birth to her first child while in office — received praise from around the globe, but also a fair amount of sexist abuse. Fox News’ Tucker Carlson was criticized for calling her “the lady with the big teeth who tormented her citizens,” but even a less-contentious outlet like the BBC came under fire for its original headline asking “Can women have it all?” after Ardern’s announcement.

The commentary “reflects wider trends that directly impact many women in politics,” Ivana Saric writes at Axios. It’s a global issue: Studies show that female politicians and activists — and women of color in particular — are far more likely than their male counterparts to experience abusive comments and threats. But Ardern’s detractors say her global stardom belied problems with crime and inflation at home. “If you look from overseas, you don’t see the lack of policy, you see the personality,” writer Morgan Godfery tells The New York Times. “And that’s where the mismatch comes in.” Did sexism drive Jacinda Ardern from her job, or was she simply more beloved abroad than at home?

Ardern showed the effectiveness of female leadership

“Much was made of Ardern’s gender,” Kara Alaimo writes for CNN, though Ardern herself often rejected the framing. But there are reasons to think that women leaders bring unique skills to government leadership: One 2021 study showed that COVID outcomes were better in countries led by women. And despite the criticism she’s received over New Zealand’s cost-of-living crunch, Ardern has an “extraordinary track record of accomplishments” that includes leading her country through the 2019 Christchurch massacre — and passing a ban on semi-automatic weapons afterward. It was also important that she was visible as a mother and, in her resignation, willing to talk about burnout on the job. Those actions “challenged our stereotypes of leadership” and helped the world realize our leaders don’t have to be “old white men who don’t do much visible caregiving or frequently discuss their personal challenges.”

She was the face of ‘kindly authoritarianism’

Arden’s fans around the world don’t know what it’s like to live under her leadership, Tom Slater writes in the National Post. “If they did, they’d see why Ardern is beating a hasty retreat.” Her “severe” COVID policies locked down the country, stranding New Zealanders abroad, and implemented policies that offered freedom to the vaccinated and restrictions for the unvaccinated. That makes her the face of a progressive-style “authoritarianism that has essentially taken over the western world.” Ardern’s non-Kiwi supporters probably also don’t know about her immigration policies — like Donald Trump, she won office by promising to reduce the number of newcomers to her country. All of that seems to matter outside New Zealand less than her “emotional intelligence” and style, making Ardern an exemplar of an age in which “politicians draw just as much legitimacy, if not more, from the warm feeling they give international elites than what it is they actually do and achieve for their domestic population.”

A counterpoint to narcissistic men

“Politics remains a tough arena for women,” Andreea Papuc writes for Bloomberg Opinion. But Ardern was one of a wave of young female leaders who emerged in recent years “as a counterpoint to the loud, attention-seeking and narcissistic male leaders riding a wave of populist sentiment.” And she did so with style — a former DJ who, after taking office, appeared on the cover of Vogue. Her handling of the COVID crisis “was credited with keeping the virus at bay” but also led to ” explicit and vicious” personal threats that made the job more difficult to do. Ardern and other leaders, like Finland’s Sanna Marin, have shown that women can lead with “compassion as well as a sense of humor.” Her departure, though, shows the challenges that remain. “It’s not just about getting women there, but keeping them.”

She was polarizing at home

Ardern may be a “global icon,” but she is leaving office before the voters kick her out, Fraser Nelson writes for The Telegraph. Her choices were to stand for election before an angry electorate or get out now to capitalize on her popularity outside New Zealand’s borders. “For a global icon, there really was only one option.” And why are the voters angry? Her handling of COVID might have been applauded abroad, but her inability to secure a sizable supply of vaccines “left Kiwis locked up long after Europeans were jetting off on holidays.” Her vaccine mandates forced “hundreds” of public workers out of their jobs. And the crackdown on immigration led to chronic worker shortages. That’s just the shortlist. “It all adds up to the appetite for a change, for someone dull, less controversial.”

Compassionate leadership takes a toll

The tone of commentary around Ardern has been ” abusive, violent, sexist and misogynistic,” Suze Wilson writes at The Conversation. While not all of her actions during her time in office were “optimal,” the job means making tough decisions: “It’s foolish to expect perfection from leaders.” The cost-of-living crisis is driven by global forces, and no leader is omnipotent — especially in a democracy. Yet Arden’s critics seemed to think they deserved to belittle her in a sexist fashion. They often referred to her as “Cindy,” and sometimes by “the other C word,” all while ignoring the “many lives and livelihoods” saved by her leadership through multiple crises. The ugliness of the rhetoric surrounding her is a black mark on the country. “It should be to New Zealand’s eternal shame that Ardern has been subjected to this.”

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