Women + Power: Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern

JACINDA ARDERN NEW ZEALAND'S BREAK-OUT POLITICIAN

New Zealand’s youngest prime minister in 150 years made global headlines last June when she became the second elected world leader in modern times to give birth while in office. She has since received widespread praise for her response to the Christchurch terrorist attacks in March.

Ardern’s rise to the highest office in the land was swift, becoming the leader of the center-left Labor Party just weeks before New Zealand’s 2017 election. Her youth, charisma and progressive policies have stirred fervent admiration among her devotees — a phenomenon called “Jacindamania” by the news media.

Ardern’s balance of leadership and motherhood generated discussion

before she became prime minister. She stood up for working mothers and chided interviewers who asked her whether she would take time off if she had a baby while serving as prime minister. She replied that asking a woman in a professional context if she planned to get pregnant was “totally unacceptable.”

Following the birth of her daughter, Neve Te Aroha Ardern Gayford with partner of five years Clarke Gaylord, it was he who would become a stay-athome parent

In the wake of the Christchurch terrorist attacks in March, in which 51 worshipers were killed at two mosques, Prime Minister Ardern again made world news. Commentators praised her compassion, her decision to wear a hijab when comforting survivors and the families of those killed, and her

swift action to ban most semi-automatic weapons in New Zealand. Not only did she deliver swift action on gun control, she has sent a powerful message around the world about shared values—that those who seek to divide us will never succeed, and that New Zealand will always protect and celebrate the diversity and openness that make our countries great.

Ardern has also discussed the need to end the use of social media for perpetuating terrorist acts, such as the 17-minute livestream of the Christchurch massacre. In coordinated effort with French president Emmanuel Macron, she will be pushing a “Christchurch Call” initiative to ask governments and Internet companies like Facebook and Google to remove terrorist broadcasts quickly when they do appear, and to do more to prevent terrorist acts from being livestreamed in the first place.