As prime minister of New Zealand, Jacinda Ardern juggled leadership and motherhood

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Arts, Books

4.2 • 672 Ratings

🗓️ 16 June 2025

⏱️ 10 minutes

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Summary

In 2017, Jacinda Ardern was sitting in a bathroom waiting to learn two things: whether she was going to be the prime minister of New Zealand – and whether she was pregnant. Ardern became only the second person in history to give birth while holding elected office at the top of government. And as prime minister, she had few people to turn to for advice on balancing the challenges of motherhood with leading a country. In today's episode, Ardern joins NPR's Mary Louise Kelly for a conversation about her new memoir A Different Kind of Power. They discuss what it was like to be a young woman running a country, the way Ardern has experienced parental guilt inside and outside of her political career, and how she knew when it was time to leave office.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, it's Empire's Book of the Day. I'm Andrew Limbong. When heads of state write memoirs, they can make
0:08.6	the job seem a bit lofty. I mean, don't get me wrong. It's an important job. It's a hard job,
0:14.0	but it is, at the end of the day, a job. What I found refreshing about today's interview with
0:19.8	Jacinda Ardern, the former prime
0:21.5	minister of New Zealand, is that she doesn't treat the position with pretentiousness.
0:26.5	It was a gig she wanted, and when it was time to go, she left. Her new memoir is titled
0:31.2	A Different Kind of Power. And in it, she writes about the comments and attitude she had to overcome
0:36.2	as a young woman and mother who also happened to be the prime minister.
0:40.5	Up ahead, she talks to NPR's Mary Louise Kelly about all that and how she feels now that she's outside of politics.
0:49.1	Jacinda Ardern tells a story about being locked in a political campaign seven weeks to go before elections,
0:56.1	and she's about to do a TV news interview.
0:59.0	Ardern had just taken over as leader of the Labor Party in New Zealand.
1:03.8	If they won, she would become Prime Minister.
1:06.4	And as she waited for her live hit, she listened as the male sports anchor opined that she and all
1:13.0	women seeking new jobs should be open about their reproductive plans.
1:17.2	That was the bit that got me.
1:19.3	And I think that was because I talked openly about wanting a family.
1:23.6	But to assert that any woman should be asked that, I really rebelled against that.
1:27.9	That upset me.
1:28.9	What did you do?
1:29.7	Well, I pulled out my index finger and I pointed at him quite a lot.
1:34.3	Whilst really clearly asserting, you can ask me that question, but it is totally inappropriate.
	...

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