Marin has had some tough lessons to learn about double standards, perceived and actual, and the price of leadership. More on that in a second.
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern spoke ruefully about the harsh spotlight on those in public life. It’s too much, she whined. Too harsh.
Then, to complete the somewhat absurd trinity, the patron saint of the perennially aggrieved, Meghan Markle told us women couldn’t be ambitious without being thought aggressive, conniving and scheming. Astonishing, if not surprising, from a woman who has spent much of her time heaping manure on the British royal family via multiple platforms but seems very comfortable with retaining the title of duchess.
There undoubtedly are double standards in political life for men and women. Who could forget, for example, the ridiculously disproportionate attention paid to how prime minister Julia Gillard dressed and spoke?
Back to Marin. The same week that the Finnish Prime Minister was forced to take a drug test to clear her name after videos emerged of her partying with her pals in what was supposed to be a private event on a day off, Anthony Albanese was cheered for chugging a beer at Sydney’s Enmore Theatre like a uni student.
If only it were this simple, though, this black and white. It never is, and there’s a link to this conversation beyond the obvious reactions to this past week of frankly bizarre goings-on. A missing thread and it’s one I’d like us to consider before diving into the stale waters of gender-based offence and division.
Whether you are the prime minister of a quirky Scandinavian country, an ex-princess who won’t let the title go, or a member of parliament here or across the ditch; there is a truth that none can deny.
The price of leadership is accountability. Leadership is putting purpose over preference. This the currency of true leadership, be it woman or man. It is the price you pay for the life you choose, and it means things like having less of a private life. When you are the prime minister, you take your work phone with you during a pandemic. Yes, even when you go clubbing. It means thinking twice about the people you have in your world.
As soon as Dancegate seemed behind her, Marin tearfully apologised after the publication of a photo showing two women kissing, topless, behind her desk in the official summer residence of Finnish prime ministers. In a blaze of patriotism and perhaps attempted modesty, the word Finland was scrawled on a sign that covered their breasts. Marin wasn’t in the photo. But these were people she invited into an official residence.
Before you say I’m being too harsh, imagine the reaction if the same scenario played out here. A couple of bare-chested blokes, perhaps, have a fair old pash on the prime minister’s desk at Kirribilli House. Their pecs emblazoned with a massive Southern Cross tattoo. Or Straya. The reaction would be equally as strong, and absolutely nuclear if it happened under a conservative prime minister.
This isn’t a discussion about double standards in politics, although it started out that way. It’s a conversation about the privilege and responsibility of leadership and what that looks like.
It’s not, as Markle would have us believe, about women not being allowed to be ambitious. What a load of rubbish. Every single one of us can be. Any woman or man can be conniving and aggressive without a shred of ambition. Ambition is not a dirty word. Hypocrisy though …
If I think about the women I know who have ambition and a desire to succeed, they are without question the most considered, measured, intelligent and self-possessed people I know. They shoulder their responsibilities and they don’t make excuses. They certainly wouldn’t leak damaging photos to the media that end their mate’s career.
And for the record, I do not blame Marin for letting her hair down. I blame her crappy friends who betrayed her trust and risked her job. Time to prune the inner circle.
It’s easy, isn’t it? To make it one-dimensional when it’s truly not. The standards that apply, the consistent theme here is public life and public service. It’s not just about the different standards for men and women, it’s about the fact leadership is hard. If it wasn’t everyone would pay the price.
Markle loves being called duchess but is not that keen on the responsibility that goes with it. Marin says she’s only human and seeks “joy, light and fun”. Ardern says the public pressure is too harsh. All I know is this one truth that trumps all of them, which is this: to whom much is given, much is required.
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The world now has learned that 36-year-old Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin has got some serious moves. Most of us haven’t heard of her since the good old days of 2020 when she went clubbing without her work phone (that pesky old thing) and couldn’t be reached by security and contact tracers after she’d been exposed to Covid-19.