Congratulations are in order for New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern who will be the first world leader to sport a baby bump since Pakistan’s Benazir Bhutto in 1990.
“Hours after 37-year-old Jacinda Ardern was elected leader of New Zealand’s Labour Party in August, two different television hosts asked about her plans for a family. One of the hosts specifically asked whether it was acceptable for a nation’s prime minister to take maternity leave while in office.
“It is totally unacceptable in 2017 to say that women should have to answer that question in the workplace,” Ardern fired back. “It is a woman’s decision about when they choose to have children, and it should not predetermine whether or not they are given a job or have job opportunities.”
In October, Ardern became New Zealand’s youngest prime minister in more than a century. And on Friday, she announced that she would be taking on another role — that of a mother. Ardern and her partner, Clarke Gayford, are expecting their first child in June.
“I am not the first woman to multitask. I am not the first woman to work and have a baby,” Ardern said in a news conference Friday. “We are going to make this work, and New Zealand is going to help us raise our first child.”
Just another of the many reason to be jealous of those fortunate kiwis.