My Perspective: Women deserve to lead without the double standards

This is a public service announcement to our leaders, communities, and more specifically men, to stop dragging down their female counterparts.

We have a crazy double standard in what is supposed to be an evolved modern society, where we pay lip service to issues such as feminism and gender equality, then publish random inappropriate ramblings from men about the scandalous private lives of women in leadership.

We show our disgust about how women politicians are brutally slandered online, and shake our heads when we read the vile comments from bottom feeders who shelter behind their screens.

But then I see the clickbait headlines leading mainstream front pages, the gleeful reaction articles that stoke further gossip. I'm not going to link to the articles because they don't deserve the clicks.

But Tory Whanau, I see you. To other women of colour who have been dragged through the media in the past year for different reasons: Kiritapu Allen, Lynda Tabuya, Fiamē Naomi Mata’afa, and Golriz Ghahraman, I see you too.

Our leaders are human, they're allowed to enjoy themselves, have a personality, and god forbid, a sexuality. Unless those decisions are on the tax dollar, which Shane Jones has managed to bounce back from.

They should also be given grace when they struggle, because we all do, but most of us have the dignity of being able to do this outside of the media spotlight. As a woman who's made a range of decisions over her lifetime, I'm hoping there's no video evidence of some of the more questionable ones.

I have the privilege, hopefully, of privacy, without the collective pearl clutching from our communities. Imagine how far we could get if we scrutinised policy as hard as we scrutinise our women in leadership.

To those who preach empowerment, we need to do better. We should be doing more to amplify and lift our women in leadership to offset centuries of oppressive, sexist, patriarchal leadership.

Listen to Khalia Strong’s Perspective on Facebook below.

Instead, we fuel the flame that continues to hurt our current women in power, making them the unwilling, cautionary tale for our girls and daughters watching this play out across our TV screens and comment sections.

Let's hold our leaders to account for their work, not their womanhood.

That’s My Perspective.