New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced today that she is resigning. Her term as prime minister will conclude by 7th February but she will continue as an MP until the national election scheduled in October.
The world's youngest serving female leader, Ardern was elected in 2017, when she was 37. She also made history as the second woman to give birth while holding elected office.
"Jacindamania" led the Labour party in New Zealand to win, but she also rose to the occasion, facing all the challenges that the last few years posed to her country - the March 2019 terror attack, the worst in New Zealand's history, when a white supremacist shot worshippers at two mosques in Christchurch, killing 51; the fight against Covid-19 with those early and strict lockdowns that allowed New Zealand to have the lowest rates of illness and death tolls; and a natural disaster, the White Island volcanic eruption.
While there were some victories for Ardern's Labour party - record employment, 26 weeks of paid parental leave and increased sick leave, among the others - there were other unresolved issues including the housing crisis and no real reductions of emissions from burning fossil fuels to combat climate change.
Her motto when she announced the first Coronavirus lockdown for her country - "Be strong and be kind" - perfectly summarises her tenure, based on firm decisions, but on humanity and empathy as well. Many will remember her wearing a hijab hugging a mosque-goer at the Kilbirnie Mosque in Wellington, in the aftermath of the 2019 terror attack.
Why did she decide to resign? She explained it with a simple statement: "I know what this job takes, and I know that I no longer have enough in the tank to do it justice. It's that simple. I know there'll be much discussion in the aftermath of this decision as to what the so called 'real reason' was. I can tell you that what I'm sharing today is it. The only interesting angle that you will find is that, after going on six years of some big challenges, I am human. Politicians are human. We give all that we can for as long as we can. And then it's time. And for me, it's time."
It takes honesty and integrity to admit you can't take something anymore, it means you're humble enough to know your limits and stop or take a break, switch off and have a rest. In August 2021 at the Tokyo Olympics we got a lesson from gymnast Simone Biles, who withdrew from the US Gymnastics Team for mental health reasons. At the time Biles explained she had the "twisties", a sort of block or misalignment between body and mind that gymnasts may suffer from and that makes them feel disoriented, putting them at serious risk as it doesn't allow them to land safely on their feet. Her story taught us that athletes are human beings and not superheroes and that sometimes setting a high bar also means to be able to take a step back and consider your weaknesses.
In gender dynamics men rarely step off their seats willingly, not even when they commit something truly obnoxious: in my home country, Italy, most politicians are men and they are all several decades older than Ardern, but none of them would ever even think to admit "for me, it's time" (think about zombie Silvio Berlusconi). Power, prestige and money are inextricably linked and once men get them it becomes hard to give them all away.
There's even more scrutiny when a woman takes a such a decision: from an extraordinarily early age, society teaches women they are not good enough in so many different ways. As a woman you end up spending a big chunk of your life explaining and justifying things - why you decided to have kids or not, why you chose this partner and dumped that one - everything is under scrutiny, from your hairstyle to the tip of your toes. After all, society expects you to be monolithic in your choices and deliver perfection on a daily basis.
Which takes us to the fashion industry: it is almost unheard of a fashion designer opting out of their creative jobs admitting like Ardern did that there is "no more gas in the tank". The show must go on in fashion, but never stopping rarely allows designers to recharge, find new ideas and create consistently coherent and desirable collections. Moving on is a brave and difficult act in this industry: they say the late Alexander McQueen wanted to move onto something else, maybe dedicate himself to photography, but worries about his own staff held him back, creating an impasse.
There are women in fashion who decided to step back, often to preserve their sanity: British fashion designer Helen Storey dropped out of the industry and started focusing on projects about science and climate change, working with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Jordan's Za'atari camp, one of the world's largest refugee camps in the world.
Since the late Italian artist and fashion/interior designer Cinzia Ruggeri was rediscovered, the most recurrent questions to often clueless curators of exhibitions about her has been "why did she turn her back to fashion? Was there a reason?" (Ruggeri stopped creating collections towards the end of the '80s). While I firmly think she would have said "Je Ne Regrette Rien" à la Edith Piaf, such a question is rather superficial as it implies that, if you're a fashion designer, that's the only thing you can be and you must be trapped and pigeonholed into an industry that consumes you, even when you don't align with it anymore.
Though incredibly difficult, turning your back to an industry such as fashion and giving the two finger salute to all that comes with it - including the stress of churning out collection after collection and of having to deal with a system that considers you God until they find another golden calf to worship - represents an act of self-preservation rather than self-destruction and a way to get on with your life and work on other projects (Ruggeri reshifted her attention onto other creative outlets and focused on interior design projects and features for Casa Vogue as well, so turning her back to the fashion industry allowed her to concentrate on other skills).
Ardern concluded her message with the words: "I hope I leave New Zealanders with a belief that you can be kind, but strong, empathetic but decisive, optimistic but focused. And that you can be your own kind of leader - one who knows when it's time to go." Guess that's the greatest lesson in life, always knowing when it is time to step back and, well, go. Without any regrets.
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