All about Jacinda Ardern, the youngest female Prime Minister in the world

Jacinda Ardern was officially sworn in as the Prime Minister of New Zealand on October 26, 2017.

At 37, Ardern became the youngest prime minister of New Zealand in 150 years and the country’s third female leader.

Ardern became the prime minister three months after inheriting the leadership of the Labour Party.

Here are seven things you should know about Jacinda Ardern:

1. In 2008, she was elected the youngest member of the New Zealand parliament.

2. Ardern became a list MP i.e. someone who gained a seat in parliament by being elected from the party list, rather than geographical constituency.

In her nine years as an MP, Ardern had a wide range of senior portfolios such as youth affairs, justice, corrections, police, social development, children, arts culture and heritage and small business.

3. Ardern also spent time in London as a senior policy advisor and ahead of her entry into Parliament was elected President of the International Union of Socialist Youth.

4. She joined New Zealand’s Labour Party as an 18-year-old. The party’s platform includes providing free mental health care, raising the minimum wage, and cleaning up the nation’s rivers.

5. She was one of the political leaders to vote in favour of the 2013 Marriage Equality Bill, the groundbreaking legislation that enabled same-sex couples to marry in New Zealand.

6. Ardern also happens to be one of the few politicians globally to talk openly about mental health, and her personal struggle with anxiety.

7. In June 2018, PM Ardern became the second elected leader in modern history to give birth while in office.

The first leader was the late Benazir Bhutto. In 1990, Bhutto gave birth to a daughter while serving as Pakistan’s prime minister, a first for an elected world leader.

 

Source : India today