JACINA ARDERN resigns

For millions around the world, Ardern’s resignation comes as a shock - but some women will pore over her words with particular interest. With her charm and leadership philosophy rooted in kindness, she has earned widespread popularity. Many of her fans are women, who have avidly followed her journey from newbie PM to working mother and have looked up to her as a role model.

Ardern is not the only prominent figure to make the news in recent years for announcing a shock withdrawal because of burnout; others include athletes Naomi Osaka, Ash Barty and Virat Kohli; and bosses like James Packer. But Ardern also holds that very rare position of being a working mother while leading a country. She gave birth while in office, only the second world leader to have done so, after Pakistan’s Benazir Bhutto.

In many ways, it was an extreme test case of balancing work and family. But there were clearly political factors at play as well. Her resignation comes amid growing political headwinds, with her approval ratings falling as New Zealanders’ concerns rise over living costs and crime rates.

For a while, she appeared determined to tackle it head on. “I always expected, given Neve is still so young and so small, that there would be a real tension there between making sure I was meeting all of her needs and of course, my responsibilities. But I am confident with all of the support I’m very lucky to have, we will absolutely make it work,” she told reporters at the time.

Politicians are human. “We give all that we can, for as long as we can, and then it’s time.” Ardern said, her voice faltering. “And for me, it’s time… I know what this job takes, and I know that I no longer have enough in the tank to do it justice.”

She talked about how she wished to spend more time with her family as they had “sacrificed the most out of all of us”. She said she looked forward to “being there” for her daughter when she begins school, and told her partner Clarke “let’s fi nally get married”.

Many had hoped to see her continue forging a path and will be disappointed that she could not go any further, but they will no doubt also have sympathy for her predicament.

Ardern said in 2018, “I am by no means the fi rst woman to multitask, and in terms of being a woman in politics, there are plenty of women who carved a path and incrementally have led the way to be able to make it possible for people to look upon my time in leadership and think, yes, I can do the job and be a mother.”

As many women around the world are painfully aware, family and a top-level full-time job are not good bedfellows - something has to give, and in a job as head of state, it cannot be the job. Therefore, one suffers the agony of knowing you are not being the best mother you could be, watch your child grow up from a distance and miss all the special aspects of their development.

No one can criticise her for the decision but there are men around stating that, ‘this is why women cannot do the tough jobs’. No, this is not the reason – the reason is that most men in such roles have a partner at home doing the hard graft, who might have sacrificed her career for his. When women take the top job it is rare that their male partner will remain at home, and women certainly suffer more guilt from leaving the child than most men. Th is is a vast generalisation but in the majority of cases it is true.

Personally, I applaud her for having achieved high office and then having the courage to know when to quit and put her family fi rst.

But this predicament faces most women - job or family? It’s one of the toughest choices there is and one that only women face.

BY MIMI NICKLIN, CEO FREEDM