If New Zealand aspires to being a highly-skilled economy in the modern, global marketplace we need to maximise the talent pool of men and women at work. We also need both men and women to contribute to building strong and cohesive communities and for both to be well represented in public and political life.
The New Zealand Census of Women’s Participation 2008 shows how we are responding to these challenges. The results reveal a worrying report card for women’s equality. Some areas of the public sector which have traditionally made positive, incremental progress in the past have now slowed or stalled. The corporate sector’s performance in the appointment of women to the boardrooms of major listed New Zealand companies remains dismal.
The data published here shows unequivocally that gender equality is still far from realised in New Zealand’s boardrooms and that we lag behind other similar developed nations despite our hard-won reputation for gender progress.
While the public sector reveals better progress for women in governance than the private sector overall, the report is a wake-up call for the Government. It has less than two years to live up to promises made internationally of 50% gender parity in government appointed bodies by 2010. Women’s representation has risen 1% between Census reports to 42%. It will take significant whole-of-government commitment to close the 8% gap in 2 years.
The third benchmark report undertaken by the New Zealand Human Rights Commission expands the coverage of women in public and professional life. The availability of data on the status of Māori women is reported on where possible and discussed for the first time. The addition of this data responds to calls by the co-leader of the Māori Party Tariana Turia and the Māori Women’s Welfare League since the 2004 Census report.
In recognition of its importance to New Zealand’s national identity, sport is included along with an analysis of the status of women in the New Zealand Police. More detailed findings of women in local government following the 2007 local body elections are also included.
The Census continues to report on the gender composition of the boards of private companies, of statutory bodies including Crown companies and other Crown entities. Women’s representation and status in politics, the judiciary and law, universities, media and public relations, and the trade union movement are also reported on.
An Agenda for Change outlining strategies that stakeholders could use to push for positive change was included in the 2006 Census report. It is evaluated in this report and a new Agenda for Change 2008 is included as a catalyst for debate and action.
The Census report is a bench-marking exercise and provides an objective tool to describe and debate the position of New Zealand women from a factual vantage at a time when complacency and negativity about women’s progress pervades public and media debate. It also provides for international comparison of data where appropriate.