In the News
January 26, 2023
This article, posted in Ms. magazine, discusses the impact of Jacinda Ardern, New Zealand’s then-prime minister, resigning after her five years of leadership, quoting Cynthia. Read an excerpt below:
Even still, Ardern was no stranger to public scrutiny and harassment—exacerbated no doubt by her gender. Ardern was the youngest woman head of government when she assumed the top role in 2017, and the second leader in history to give birth in office (the first was Pakistan’s Benazir Bhutto in 1990). Ardern’s five years of leadership were punctuated by constant attacks on social media, which were often sexist and violent in nature. Though Ardern has said these attacks were not the reason for her resignation, Former New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark called the hatred and vitriol leveled at the outgoing leader “unprecedented.”
Threats against women in public can have a real effect on whether women stay in leadership roles, or even pursue them in the first place, said Cynthia Richie Terrell, executive director and founder of RepresentWomen.
“The resignation of Jacinda Ardern reminds us that women continue to face barriers in politics, and that it is essential to build governmental workplaces that enable all to participate and succeed,” said Terrell. “Even as leaders like Ardern have advanced women’s political representation, the pace of progress remains unacceptably sluggish.”
Despite several notable women elected officials—such as Ardern, Germany’s Angela Merkel, Estonia’s Kaja Kallas and Ethiopia’s Sahle-Work Zewde—women’s leadership is still absent from too much decision-making. Only 28 countries have a woman as its head of state or government, and worldwide only 21 percent of government ministers are women.
Read the full article here.
