New Zealand’s charismatic new Labour leader, who took over in a desperate gamble to revive her struggling party seven weeks out from a parliamentary election, spent her first 24 hours in the job fielding questions about babies rather than her policy plans.
Jacinda Ardern, 37, took over as Labour’s youngest leader on Tuesday after her predecessor quit over “disturbing” opinion poll results, leaving little time to plot a strategy to break the center-right National Party’s decade-long hold on power.
If successful in the Sept. 23 election, Ardern could become the country’s third female prime minister.
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On Tuesday, just hours after being appointed Labour leader, Ardern appeared on The Project“, a popular current affairs show on New Zealand’s Three network, and was faced with questions about becoming pregnant. The show’s co-host Jesse Mulligan asked whether she had made a choice between having children or a career.
“I have been really open about that dilemma because I think probably lots of women face it,” Ardern responded.
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“My position is no different than the woman who works three jobs, or who might be in a position where they’re juggling lots of responsibilities. You’ve just got to take every day as it comes and try to make the best of the lot that you’re given. So, I’m not pre-determining any of that.”
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However, the question refused to go away and she clashed on Wednesday with a radio host who said New Zealanders needed to know whether she planned to have children, in the same way that companies would if they were employing a female worker.
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“If you’re the employer of a company, you need to know that type of the thing from the women you’re employing, because you legally have to give them maternity leave,” co-host of The AM Show Mark Richardson said.
“The question is, is it OK for a PM to take maternity leave while in office?”
“I totally accept that I’ll be asked that question because I chose to be honest about it … I decided to talk about it,” Ardern said.
“For other women, it is totally unacceptable in 2017 to say that women should have to answer that question in the workplace,” she added as the show’s lone female co-host applauded.
“Employers should avoid questions relating to pregnancy, proposed pregnancy, contraception or family planning, or parenthood,” a statement from New Zealand Human Rights said Tuesday, reminding employers that similar questions could breach the Act.
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In Canada, it is also illegal for employers to ask certain questions that could discriminate against a particular job applicant, including a woman’s plans to have a child.
All individuals are entitled “to equal employment opportunities without regard to race or colour, national or ethnic origin, religion, age, family or marital status, sex (including pregnancy or childbirth),” the Canadian Human Rights Act (CHRA) outlines, suggesting that employers could be in violation of the act if they ask applicants about pregnancy, child bearing plans, or child care arrangements.
However, the CHRA adds that there are bona fide roles “when a person’s disability, gender or other protected attribute” prevents the applicant from performing a job’s “essential duties” and would not be deemed discriminatory to refuse to employ that person.
— With files from Global News
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