Jacinda Ardern

Jacinda Kate Laurell Ardern ( born 26 July 1980) is a New Zealand politician serving as the 40th Prime Minister of New Zealand since 26 October 2017. She has also served as the Leader of the Labour Party since 1 August 2017. Ardern has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for the Mount Albert electorate since 8 March 2017; she was first elected to the House of Representatives as a list MP at the 2008 general election. After graduating from the University of Waikato in 2001, Ardern began her career working as a researcher in the office of Prime Minister Helen Clark. She later worked in the United Kingdom as a policy advisor to British Prime Minister Tony Blair. In 2008, she was elected President of the International Union of Socialist Youth. Ardern became a list MP in 2008, a position she held for almost ten years until her election to the Mount Albert electorate in the 2017 by-election, held on 25 February. She was unanimously elected as Deputy Leader of the Labour Party on 1 March 2017, following the resignation of Annette King. Ardern became Leader of the Labour Party on 1 August 2017, after Andrew Little resigned from the position following a historically low poll result for the party. She is credited with increasing her party's rating in opinion polls. In the general election of 23 September 2017, the Labour Party won 46 seats (a net gain of 14), putting it behind the National Party, which won 56 seats. After negotiations with National and Labour, the New Zealand First party chose to enter into a minority coalition government with Labour, supported by the Greens, with Ardern as Prime Minister. Ardern's government has focused particularly on the New Zealand housing crisis, child poverty, and social inequality. In March 2019, she led the country through the aftermath of the Christchurch mosque shootings, and her government introduced strict gun laws in response. Ardern describes herself as a social democrat and a progressive. She was the world's youngest female head of government, having taken office at age 37. Ardern became the world's second elected head of government to give birth while in office (after Benazir Bhutto) when her daughter was born on 21 June 2018. For her global outreach, leadership skills, and the fact that New Zealand's global ratings of approval and importance are significantly improving under her premiership, Ardern has been widely described as the most powerful woman in the Southern Hemisphere and one of the most powerful women in the world.