Past G7 and G20 summits invariably show the political spouses at play, visiting art galleries, sampling delicious wines, dining at showcase restaurants and suchlike. The message seems to be that the weighty business of solving the world’s problems is conducted by their predominantly male partners locked in roundtable discussions, while the wives’ role is to “bolster” relationships.
Photographs and accompanying articles traditionally dissect the outfits that the women – and it is mainly women – are wearing, and their ratings in the glamour stakes. This, despite the fact they are largely powerful and accomplished people in their own right.
Awkward: Philip May, back right, poses with the other all-female spouses of world leaders at the G20 summit in Kyoto in 2019. Photograph: Du Xiaoyi/AFP/Getty Images