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where Time Mathieson worked,
and where he met Gillard
In my previous post, "Do Female Commonwealth Leaders Bring Their Spouses to Important Summits?" I did a quick visual count to determine the number of spouses that leaders of the Commonwealth countries brought to the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting this past October.
Here are some rudimentary statistics I've done from these photos:
22/59 or 37% of all leaders brought their spouses to the 2011 summit
1/7 or 14% of female leaders brought their spouse(s) to the summit
21/52 or 40% of male leaders brought their spouses to the summit
If only two more female leaders (3/7) had brought their spouse, the percentage would have equaled that of the male leaders' spouses present at the summit.
I know the numbers are very small when it comes to statistics, but I don't think that if there were 20 women leaders, 8 spouses would have been with them (i.e. to equal the 40% of female spouses present in this summit). This is a conjecture, but I would think that most men who are married to women with important jobs also have important jobs themselves, and cannot easily abandon these obligations. Whereas most women remain at home, and can find other arrangements (family etc. to take care of children) in order to accompany their husbands.
Tim Mathieson is not a househusband, but he's a real estate agent, according to Wikipedia. This is an independent, self-employed type of job which most likely allows him to set up his own schedule. Also, the summit was in his own country, so it was much easier for him to make the arrangement to be at this important (for his wife and his country) event. So, his situation, at least in this particular event, was very conducive for him to play the role of a househusband, and leave behind his job duties to be by his wife.
The royal obligations under which Prince Philip falls are not comparable to those of the elected leaders of the other Commonwealth countries, so I will leave his role (and his activities) alone.
Here are the occupations of the rest of the four husbands:
- Bangladesh's Sheikh Hasina's husband, who died in 2009, was "a reputed Bangladeshi nuclear scientist" [Source: Wikipedia]
- Liberia's Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf has divorced her husband who is from a prominent and wealthy family, who has a masters degree in agricultural economics, and who worked in the agricultural ministry [Source: Google Books]
- Bermuda's Paula Cox is married to "a businessman" [Source: Wikipedia]
- Trinidad and Tobago's Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar is married to a medical doctor [Source: Trinidad and Tobago Newsday]
So, every single one of these "first husbands," excepting Prince Philip, has an important career independent of his wife's. I doubt that even a fraction of the wives of the heads of state would show this.
The list is long to do the same research for the female spouses, but I will do that eventually. A quick, random survey shows me that:
- Patience Jonathan, First Lady of Nigeria,
[worked in the] Bayelsa State Ministry of Education, where she served until 29 May 1999 when her husband became the Deputy Governor of the stateI.e., no formal career after marriage
- Laureen Harper, First Lady of of Canada,
offers her home to the OHS (Ottawa Humane Society) as a foster home for kittens, and in her spare time enjoys riding her motorcycle.I.e., no formal career
- Charlotte Scott, Wife of Zambia's Vice Minister
officiated at the Planned Parenthood Association of Zambia [in October 2011].I.e., no formal career