Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: Is being a 'strong woman' really such a problem?

Judith Collins has two weeks left as an MP and she’s given an exit interview to Audrey Young at the New Zealand Herald in which she says people don’t like strong women - obviously referring to herself.

Now, I don’t disagree with Judith that she is a strong woman. She’s formidable.

But I do disagree with her that people don’t like strong women, because what is Helen Clark if not a strong woman? So strong, they used to say that the softest part of her was her teeth - and yet she was elected and re-elected by the New Zealand public three times.

That’s more than Jacinda Ardern achieved and Jacinda Ardern is not what I would call a strong woman.

Now, look, I realise there are too many variables to ever make a truly fair comparison across elections like that. But if you did strip everything else out, you’d look at it like this: Helen, the strong woman, won three elections, compared with Jacinda - the milder personality - who won two and only really won the second because of COVID.

Judith Collins doesn’t explicitly blame the fact that she’s a strong woman for her poor showing at the polls when she led the National Party - what did she come in at, 24 percent or something like that?

She’s really referring to the fact that she copped more outrage for rolling a sitting MP for a seat in 2002 than John Key did for doing the same thing in the same year.

But just for the avoidance of doubt: Judith’s problem as leader of the National Party was not that she was a strong woman. In fact, that was part of her attraction at the time.

The problem was that she was up against Jacinda in the COVID election, which was really a hiding to nothing - and she was doing weird things like praying in church for the cameras and making comments about fat people during the campaign. Much as I might have agreed with her, that was not a smart move.

But I really wish that women like Judith would stop blaming their gender for how people react to them because more often than not it is not their gender that’s the problem - it’s something else. And by blaming their gender, they’re avoiding being honest with themselves and honest with others about what that other thing is.

More importantly - much, much more importantly - this reinforces to younger women that they’re up against it simply because they’re women, that being a woman, and especially being a strong woman, is somehow a problem.

 It is not a problem. People like strong women. Most of us have strong women for mothers.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Together due to ce Ellen. So Judith Collins has two
weeks left as an MP, and she's given an exit
exit interview to Audrey Young at The Herald, in which
she says that people don't like strong women, obviously referring
to herself. Now, I don't disagree with Judith that she
is a strong woman. She's very formidable. But I do
disagree with her that people don't like strong women. Because
what is Helen Clark if not a strong woman, so

(00:22):
strong that they used to say of her that the
softest part of her was her teeth. And yet she
was elected and re elected by the New Zealand public
three times, which is more than j Just Sinda Arduna
CHIEFD and Jasinda Arduna is not what I would call
a strong woman. Now. Look, I realize that there are
too many variables to really ever make a fair comparison
across elections like that, But if you did strip out
everything else, you'd look at it like this. Helen the

(00:43):
strong woman won three elections compared to just Sinda the
milder personality, who won two and only really won the
second because of COVID. Now, Judith Collins doesn't explicitly blame
the fact that she's a strong woman for her poor
showing at the polls when she led the National Party
world she come in at twenty four percent or something
like that. She's really referring to the fact that she
copped more outrage for rolling a sitting MP for a

(01:06):
seat in two thousand and two than John Key did
for doing the same thing in the same year. But
just for the avoidance of doubt, Judith's problem is a
leader of the National Party was not that she was
a strong woman. In fact, that was her attraction at
the time. The problem was that she was up against
Jacinda in the COVID election, which was really a hiding
to nothing, and she was doing weird things like praying
in church for the cameras and saying stuff about fat

(01:27):
people during the campaign. Much as I might have agreed
with her, not a smart move. But I really wish
that women like Judith would stop blaming their gender for
how people react to them, because more often than not,
it is not their gender that is the problem. It's
something else that's the problem, and by blaming their gender,
they're avoiding being honest with themselves and honest with others
about what that other thing is. But also, and much

(01:50):
much more importantly, what this is doing is it is
reinforcing to younger women that they're up against it because
they're a woman, that being a woman, and particularly being
a strong woman is a problem. It is not a problem.
People like strong women. Most of us have strong women
for mothers. For more from Hither Duplessy Allen Drive, listen

(02:10):
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