On the surface, former New Zealand PM Jacinda Ardern’s memoir is a conventional autobiography – beginning with her childhood in an economically downtrodden town in the rural Bay of Plenty region, and tracing her breakneck rise through national politics to become the world’s youngest female head of government at just 37. We now know she also fell pregnant shortly before assuming office.
As history shows, Ardern faced two of the biggest sociopolitical challenges in New Zealand’s modern history: the COVID-19 pandemic and the 2019 Christchurch mosque shootings. And while she handled both with intelligence, grace and leadership, it must be said she emerged at a time when global leadership comparisons worked in her favour.
Ardern had her daughter while in office and raised her in the public eye. Her memoir shares many inspiring stories about the struggles millions of mothers face—running from the parliamentary chamber in Wellington’s Beehive building to express milk, feed her daughter, or hand her over to her endlessly saintly partner, Clarke.
Click here to read the rest of this story.