Jacinda Ardern is no stranger to answering unwanted, irrelevant and often sexist questions.
The New Zealand Prime Minister is just as regularly asked about her personal life as she is her policies – and her latest interview with the BBC was no exception.
The 38-year-old is visiting the UK and Europe to discuss trade, Brexit and attend the World Economic Forum in Switzerland. It is very important stuff.
So, when Ardern visited the BBC for an interview, she probably didn’t expect to be quizzed on her marital status and feminism.
Following a few questions about Brexit and New Zealand’s hopes of a free trade deal with the UK, interviewer Victoria Derbyshire went in a totally unrelated direction.
She asked Ardern if she had plans to propose to her partner Clarke Gayford.
“I want to put [my partner] through the torture and pain of having to agonise about that question himself”
New Zealand @jacindaardern tells us she is a feminist, but she’d never be the one to pop the questionhttps://t.co/MCAoKLpCGK #VictoriaLIVE pic.twitter.com/rfbSp4NOmf
— Victoria Derbyshire (@VictoriaLIVE) January 21, 2019
Top Comments
In 2019 there are still too many people confused about feminism.
FEMINISM is GENDER EQUALITY.
That's it.
In my life & travels I've noticed how a few "old-schoolers" ( particularly men ) have tried to convert younger people to the thinking that "feminists are nothing but butch, left-wing, hairy-arm-pitted scolds who demand more than their fair share".
The observation that they actually find feminism to be "inconvenient" is lost on them.
This is because their male elders convinced them as young men that male superiority was the natural way of things..........and anyway - the Bible said so.............lol.
After centuries of being house-slaves and being bashed senseless for saying "NO" - the women's movement had to arise.
Jacinda Ardern is a world leader and performs the tasks of a leader in her working life.
As New Zealand's PM and figurehead she has to delicately balance her duties to the world with her duties to her country. Anyone who expects those duties to manifest rapidly is (I think) expecting too much.
When she's at home with her partner & their baby she's Jacinda & mummy.
Surely that time is private and not up for discussion.
No, feminism is trying to increase the outcomes for women. That is very different from trying to get gender equality.
Interesting that you think you know what all these men think.
Could just as easily say that women got to stay home and run the household while men were forced to go into often unsafe conditions to supply for their family.
If she was any good she would shut these questions down and not entertain this tripe. Despite what Aussies seem to think, she is losing credibility here in NZ and rarely seen over past few months.