Speaker 1: New Zealand Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern did an extraordinarily
good job of pointing to a reporter's very silly question and saying, Would you be asking me that
question if I was a 60 year old man instead of a younger woman? This is super interesting and
we're going to look at the clip New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern was doing,
doing a joint press conference with the Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin, both female leaders
younger than being in their sixties or seventies, as is common in many parts around the world. And
the reporter asked, why are you meeting? Is it because you're both younger women?
And Jacinda Ardern among pointing out many other problems with the question,
said, Well, is that a question you would ask about why other world leaders meet? Let's take a look
at this. This was very nicely handled. Speaker 3: Yeah, a lot of people will
be wondering, are you two meeting a lot? Speaker 1: By the way? A lot of people will
be wondering, is that actually true or is this just a code for I want to ask this question no
matter what. And so I'm saying other people want to know who's wondering about that. Here we go.
Speaker 3: Yeah. A lot of people will be wondering, are you to meeting just because,
you know, you're similar in age and, you know, you've got a lot of, you know, common stuff there,
you know, when you got into politics and stuff or can Kiwis actually expect to see more deals
between our two countries down the line? Speaker 4: Because here is my first question
is I wonder whether or not anyone ever asked Barack Obama and John Key if they met because
they were of similar age. We, of course, have a higher proportion of men in politics. It's reality
because to woman mate, it's not simply because of their gender. Finland exports into a New
Zealand $199 million worth of exports. They have particular technology and companies like nuclear,
biofuels, even basic industrial ways that we use in our buildings. You won't be aware that a large
number of our elevators come out of Finland. Agricultural machinery. New Zealand, on the
other hand, is trading about $14 million worth and it's mostly in wine and beef. There is huge
potential between us. The EU FTA is a launchpad for that, but we need to make sure that as nations
we don't just simply go through the motions of an FTA ratification, but that is individual nations.
We look for the opportunities to build on that economic agreement. So for me this is timely. Next
year we're looking to progress. FTA Our meeting today is a chance alongside the Prime Minister's
high level trade delegation of significant industry leaders. We really leverage the
economic opportunities between our two countries. Little would be known about the depth of that
relationship or the potential of it, but it's our job to further it regardless of our gender.
And now we are meeting because we are prime ministers, of course. But yes, in defense we have.
Speaker 1: I think you get the point. This is really a perfect example of the type of question
that she gets because of her age and gender. And I think it's really important. You know,
this is not a show. It's important to me that this is not a show that uncritically repeats
tropes that are not actually true. So when the all you don't hear this too much anymore.
But there was a while where it was $0.77 on the dollar. Women make $0.77 on the dollar compared
to men. And if I'm going to be using that, I want to know that that's actually accurate.
And so we researched it. We spent a while doing the research, we did a long form piece on it,
and we found out that really we're talking about $0.92 on the dollar when we look at
the gender pay. A gap, some part of that gap, presumably due to gender discrimination and
part of it due to other factors. So that's the number I use. I want to have the actual data.
This is just a perfect example of a question that you're not going to get. You know,
when when Trump And who's a 70 something year old world world leader? I don't know. I mean,
listen, Putin's not 70 something. I think he's close to 70. But when Trump and Putin meet,
no one thinks to say, are you meeting because you're both white men of a similar age? No,
nobody would ask that in any other circumstance like this. In fact, when you see someone like
Trudeau and Macron meet younger men, nobody's asking about whether they're meeting because
of their age either. So I think it's really important that we not say that there are isms
when they aren't actually there that were accurate with the claims that we make, etc.. This is just
straight up a question that she's getting and that they are getting both the Finnish and New Zealand
Prime Minister. They are getting these questions because of their age and gender. Plain and simple,