Chapter 38: Women's Leadership in the South Pacific

Rae Nicholl

Women's leadership in the South Pacific Helen Clark turned 50 years old on February 26, 2000, not long after becoming New Zealand's first elected woman prime minister. At her birthday celebrations, she said that she wanted to “lead a long-lived and successful government” (Espiner, 2007, p. E4), an ambition she achieved by heading the Social Democratic Labour government for an uninterrupted period of 9 years from 1999 to 2008. Her tenure coincided with New Zealand women holding every key constitutional position, an achievement that placed the country alongside the Nordic nations in terms of gender equality. When her government lost the general election of 2008, political commentators and feminists wondered if the golden age for New Zealand women would also come to an end. By 2009 Helen Clark, more usually known to the New Zealand public as just Helen, was New Zealand's longest-serving female member of Parliament (MP). By then, ...

Users without subscription are not able to see the full content on this title. Please, subscribe or login to access all content on this website.

• Buy The Book