Opinion Who wants to share details of their personal lives strangers?

Less than a day after being made Labour leader, Jacinda Ardern was questioned about her family plans. Photo/file

It took less than a day in her new job for Labour leader Jacinda Ardern's family plans to be discussed by the whole country.

It's a disgrace that in 2017 this invasive question is still being directed at breeding-age females, whether or not the woman herself is happy to talk about it.

Not only is it a privacy issue - why would anyone want to share intimate details with a stranger? - it's a question to which there is no right answer.

In applying for jobs, a woman who admits she wants a child is at a disadvantage to other applicants that won't be taking time off for childbirth. It's an automatic assumption that the woman will be the primary carer of a child and with that comes nightmares of sick days, school holidays and struggles to find babysitters.

A woman who says she doesn't want children is seen by many as unnatural or she is disbelieved. Women are supposed to be maternal by nature and any woman that goes against the grain is judged or is told that she'll change her mind when her biological clock starts ticking - so it's assumed she'll want to have kids later in life, regardless of what she says she wants now.

It's because of these assumptions people make that the Human Rights Commission says treating a woman unfairly in employment because she is pregnant or may become pregnant is unlawful.

Besides the legalities and the unfair assumptions, there's also the fact that you never know what's happening in someone's personal life.

There are women who can't have children although they desperately want them. For these women, drawing attention to their child-free state is like a stab wound every time it's mentioned.

It's easier - and fairer - for everyone to stop asking this question altogether.