Jacinda Ardern faced relentless abuse online. Photo / NZME
The resignation of Jacinda Ardern as Prime Minister has pushed New Zealand into facing up to the abuse and vitriol targeted at female politicians.
Ardern didn’t specifically cite the abuse as a reason for resigning, but data released in the days after her announcement showed up to 93 per cent of abuse aimed at politicians was sent in her direction. Dr Suze Wilson, a senior lecturer at Massey University’s School of Management, says politicians expect a fair amount of criticism throughout their tenures, but the nature of that criticism was different for Ardern.
“Her popularity has come and gone off the back of certain policy decisions . . . but right from the outset there was a gendered element to how she was perceived and how people spoke about her,” Wilson tells The Front Page podcast.
Some pundits questioned what might happen if she fell pregnant while in office and a political opponent referred to her capabilities as putting lipstick on a pig. It was also in these early stages that we first saw the moniker “Cindy” applied to her – a nickname that she has never used herself and one that no one close to her uses either.
“It was clearly an attempt to belittle her on the basis of her gender,” says Wilson.
That nickname persisted throughout her tenure in charge and has often been coupled on social media with everything from mild criticism to blatant sexism.
Wilson argues that we shouldn’t just brush this aside as a harmless five-letter word, as some commentators have suggested.
“It’s sexist,” she explains.
“It’s a technique designed to humiliate, belittle and undermine her authority and credibility.”
Wilson stresses that the term “Cindy” doesn’t exist in a vacuum and is instead part of a broader spectrum of sexism that’s accepted across New Zealand.
“‘Cindy’ is actually at the low end of the problem,” says Wilson, explaining that the sexism we see online in New Zealand starts at Cindy but stretches as far as a more infamous four-letter word starting with the letter C.
Once again, apologists for the misogyny often argue that these are just words and that politicians know what they’re getting into.
But the cumulative effect of this abuse, debasement and belittling is that women – particularly those of colour or minority religious affiliations – end up leaving politics or advising others like them not to enter the field at all. In Britain, MP Zarah Sultana has spoken about the intense Islamophobic abuse she has faced. She despaired that she would hesitate to recommend public life to young Muslim girls. And even here, Green MP Golriz Ghahraman has been vocal about what she has to contend with on a daily basis.
“The strategic goal behind [misogynistic] behaviour is to drive women out of public life,” says Wilson.
“It is very much a backlash against the kind of progress that we have actually made. And it poses an incredible burden not just on the individual woman targeted but any woman who looks at that and goes: ‘That could be me’.”
And it raises the question: How many young women across New Zealand are looking at the examples of Ardern, Sultana and Ghahraman and quietly whispering that refrain before deciding to stand up for what they believe in?
Listen to the full episode of The Front Page podcast to hear the full discussion with Dr Wilson about the impact of misogyny in New Zealand politics.