WOMEN, EQUALITY, POWER: Selected Speeches from a Life of Leadership.

• Jurisdiction: New Zealand
• Date: 01 September 2020
• Author: Partow, Negar

WOMEN, EQUALITY, POWER: Selected Speeches from a Life of Leadership

Author: Helen Clark

Published by: Allen and Unwin, Auckland, 2018, 432pp, $45.

This is a brilliant book for anyone who pursues a political or leadership career or is interested in the history of New Zealand women in leadership. It will immensely benefit students of political science, international relations and development studies and all women who deal with patriarchal structures and barriers in their professional lives. The thread that joins this selection of speeches is women's participation and leadership, but the book tells a very rich story of a lifelong political career that Clark pursued in order to create a better world. The book begins with Helen Clark's maiden speech to the New Zealand Parliament in 1982 and follows her through her career from being a member of Parliament, to a successful three-term Tabour prime minister, to her role as the first woman administrator of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). It portrays a fascinating story of a woman who has, throughout her career, passionately promoted gender equality and the importance of women's participation.

What makes Helen Clark a unique leader and a source of inspiration for the generation that followed her--much like current Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern--are sets of values and ideals that govern her moral campus as a leader. One of the most admirable of these characteristics is her commitment to a value-based leadership model that looks beyond the opportunities that realpolitik offers and remains true to her ideals. These values, partly imbedded in New Zealand culture and partly developed through...