The contrast between the reactions to Finland’s Prime Minister Sanna Marin and Australia’s Anthony Albanese shows how women in politics are continually held to different standards | KerrieO36028873 | OPINION
The sanctimonious reaction to Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin’s night out, where she was filmed singing and dancing with friends, feels very 1950s. Surely she can do what she wants in her own time, as long as she’s not hurting anyone, regardless of how high-powered her job is?The response underlines the hypocritical world view applied to women – and particularly women in power. Not only is she female: Marin became the world’s youngest serving government leader in December 2019, aged 36.
We have a long history of our leaders – male only, mind you – drinking, and of lauding their behaviour when they do so. In 2015, then prime ministerat a footy match in east Sydney. Long before he became PM, Bob Hawke set a record for downing a yard glass of beer at Oxford in the 1950s. Anthony Albanese was spotted at a Gang of Youths concert in Sydney on Monday night, where the Australian prime minister obliged the cheering crowd by skolling his beer.