Back in 2009, the UK government’s Equalities Office put out an official document entitled Women in Power: Milestones. It was a salute to the growing role of women in the political sphere over the past century. And it seems that in preparing the paper, the government was hit with a bit of a headache.

How were they to handle Margaret Thatcher. Britain’s first female prime minister was the defining politician of her age but she was also a conservative. This fact being incongruent with the mythology of the chattering classes, the matter was dealt with in the fine leftwing tradition of erasing her from history by omitting her name from the publication.

We have a similar issue here. Leftish people sometimes feel that National unfairly gazumped Labour when Jenny Shipley became our first female leader and deal with it by pretending it never happened. The erasure is effective enough that it’s not uncommon to hear mainstream media sources describe Helen Clark as our first woman prime minister.

When pulled up on this, the spin that is sometimes applied to the situation is to claim that Clark was the true embodiment of the milestone because she became the first elected prime minister in 1999. Shipley, on the other hand, only got the job through deposing her predecessor in a leadership coup in 1997. Of the two, therefore, it is Clark who represents the real breakthrough.

Of course, we all know that prime ministers aren’t directly elected in this country. They are chosen for that role by the House of Represenatives who function as a de facto electoral college for the prime ministership. So, in that regard, Clark become prime minister in exactly the same way Shipley did.

Now it is true that in 1999, as party leader, the public elected a Labour, Alliance and Green government. They did so in the certain knowledge that Helen Clark would become PM as a result. So, no, it is not credible to claim that there is no difference in the circumstances of their respective rises to power.

But for those who wish to invoke this argument, there is a bit of a catch to it.

You see, if Jenny Shipley holds an inferior status because she did not win an election in this way, the same has to be said for Jacinda Ardern. Where it was clear that Helen Clark would become prime minister on election night in 1999, it wasn’t at all certain what would happen on the evening of 23 September 2017. In fact, Ardern’s election night speech was so downbeat that people were almost calling it a concession of defeat. 

Winston Peters, who eventually gave her the votes needed for office, had studiously refused to let voters know his preferences prior to polling day. 

So unlike Clark, Ardern came to power not through the expressed will of the people. Like Shipley, she attained office by convincing a parliamentary majority that she should hold it. So any asterisk placed next to Shipley’s name should probably be affixed to Ardern’s too.

There is, however, an alternative. We could recognise that becoming the prime minister by any means, is a serious achievement that earns one a place in history. We could honour all of those who attain the office without trying to diminish them for grubby political reasons.

 Just an idea.