Women in New Zealand could vote two decades before American women, the country is on its third female prime minister and now the current officeholder, an unmarried 37-year-old named Jacinda Ardern, is about to give birth.In June, Ardern, the world’s youngest female leader, will become just the second woman in history to give birth while an elected head of state. She’ll become the first elected leader ever to take maternity leave.
“I don’t want to ever give the impression that I’m some kind of wonder woman,” said Ardern, an unpretentious wunderkind with an ever-ready smile. “Or that women should be expected to do everything because I am. I’m not doing everything.”She’ll have help with childcare from the baby’s father, Clarke Gayford, her partner of four years. Gayford, host of a popular fishing show called Fish of the Day, is planning to be a stay-at-home dad.
The couple’s unwed status, she said, was not a “deliberate decision.””It sounds terrible, because we’re very committed to each other. [Marriage is] just not something we’ve really gotten around to.” “We haven’t correctly sequenced, perhaps,” she laughed.