A Different Kind of Power: A Memoir

Jacinda Ardern recalls waiting for the results of a pregnancy test in her friend’s bathroom during the same period when she was waiting to learn if she would become the next prime minister of New Zealand. In the weeks following the 2017 General Election, the New Zealand First Party was deciding whether to ally with Ardern’s Labour Party or with the rival National Party to form a coalition government. Ardern had always felt inadequate for positions of leadership, but found herself advancing in a political career due to her sense of responsibility and duty.

When Ardern was four, her family moved to an isolated foresting town called Murupara so that her father could take a job as the local police sergeant. Poverty had been rife in Murupara since the privatization of the forestry industry in the 1980s, and most of the town’s population was Māori. Living in Murupara was difficult at first, though Ardern’s father worked hard to build trust with the local population and overcome their hostility toward governmental authorities. Ardern and her sister, Louise, who was 18 months her senior, eventually attended a school outside town to avoid local bullies.