Ardern resignation a loss to small club of women leaders

Bloomberg

The surprise resignation of New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is a major loss to the small club of women leaders around the world.
Though other women lead bigger countries, Ardern was one of the highest profile heads of government and a beacon for many feminists around the world. She became the youngest female government leader when she took office in 2017 at the age of 37. She was also the second woman to give birth to a child in office, after Pakistan’s former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, and the first to take maternity leave.
There were about 28 countries where women serve as heads of state and government, including Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, Tanzania’s Samia Suluhu Hassan, and Dina Boluarte, the president of Peru, according to UN data as of September 19.
In the wake of Ardern’s emotional resignation, some women in New Zealand and elsewhere drew attention to the torrent of abuse she faced during her six years as Prime Minister. “Jacinda has faced a level of hatred and vitriol which in my experience is unprecedented in our country,” former New Zealand prime minister Helen Clark said Thursday.
Julia Gillard, whose tenure as the first female prime minister of Australia was cut short when she was ousted by her party, said Ardern showed the world a new style of leadership and had been a “shining light” to many women.
Threats of violence against Ardern nearly tripled from 2019 to 2021, the Guardian reported in June. Women in senior political roles often report being harassed more often and more aggressively than men; Princeton University research estimates that women in local political office are targeted 3.4 times more than their male peers.