Briefings on priority areas for the Women’s Affairs portfolio 2013

Briefings on priority areas for the Women’s Affairs portfolio

Ministry on Womens Affairs

2013

http://women.govt.nz/sites/public_files/briefing-to-the-incoming-minister-2010-2013-2nd-tier-pdf.pdf

Addressing:

·       Women in leadership

·       ·  Violence against women

·       ·  Women in the economy

·       ·  Ministry of Women’s Affairs’ international leadership role.

Currently, women are under-represented in almost all leadership roles in New Zealand. Women’s participation in leadership varies by sector, being extremely low in the private sector, low in some areas of the public sector, high in the community sector, and unknown in the Māori sector (due to a lack of data).

Women’s participation on state sector boards is now at 41.5% (2009) – while this is high by international standards, women’s participation varies across the state sector and in some sub-sectors women are particularly under-represented.

Men outnumber women in almost every leadership sector measured in NZ.

Generally the percentage of women decreases as the seniority of the positions increase.

WOMEN ARE TREATED DIFFERENTLY WHEN THEY HOLD OR APPLY FOR GOVERNANCE ROLES.

There ARE opportunities to further influence and progress work in the area of women in leadership. We see opportunities to develop further in:

Increasing women’s participation in governance, informing decision- makers of the economic and social cost of under-utilising women’s leadership skills, understanding and promoting Maori women’s leadership.

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A note on violence against women: - direct relation between amount of violence against women and women’s roles as leaders in our society.

Violence against women is a serious criminal justice, public health, and social problem. It is responsible for a tremendous amount of wasted potential, and exacts enormous costs from victim/survivors, their social networks, the wider community, and the New Zealand economy.

Violence against women is widespread, but not all women are at equal risk of victimisation. The 2006 New Zealand Crime and Safety Survey found that around one-third of
New Zealand women will experience physical, sexual or psychological violence by a male partner in their lifetime. One-third of women will also experience some form of sexual violence, from unwanted sexual touching to rape, in their lifetime. Rates of violence appear to have been relatively stable since 2001. While it is difficult to make international comparisons, these rates seem to be roughly similar to some survey estimates from Canada and Australia. Many women will experience repeated violence, and/or different forms of violence, across the life course. Rates are particularly high among young women and Māori women.

The impacts of violence against women can be widespread and long-lasting. Violence undermines women’s physical and mental health, affects their ability to participate in education and employment, has an impact on families and whānau, and is a drain on the economy. High-quality services that draw on women’s strengths can promote recovery, but many women might not be getting the help they need.

The causes of violence against women are complex and involve interactions between a range of personal, situational, and socio-cultural factors. Accordingly, responding to violence requires a multi-faceted, comprehensive response. Low rates of reporting to the police and low conviction rates highlight that effective responses to violence against women need to be more broadly based than just the criminal justice system. The Ministry of Women’s Affairs brings a unique, victim-centred perspective to this issue. Our primary focus is the development of evidence-based policies that work well for women and that focus on the range of services that are needed to restore women to well-being.

Reducing violence against women will have far-reaching benefits for New Zealand as a whole. There are opportunities to contribute to current government initiatives to end violence, and to lead in key areas that will make a big difference to New Zealand, such as reducing the extent and impact of sexual violence.

For Maori, sexual violence has implications for whakama and mana, whanau, and whakapapa.

Women comprise of 64% of the country’s university graduates. The outnumber men in almost every field, including law, accounting and medicine.

However, women’s skills are not translating into significant labor market improvement. This means women’s skills are under-utilised in the economy, representing a loss of opportunities for women, their families, and the country as a whole.

Overall, women are still paid less than men, are still responsible for most of the unpaid work done in the community and for childrearing, care of the elderly and care of those with disabilities.

A key priority for the Ministry of Women’s Affairs is to ensure all women can be fully engaged in the economy.

The most recent figures from the New Zealand Income Survey June 2010 quarter show a gender pay gap of 10.6 percent.28

23. Research conducted by MWA earlier this year showed an average income gap of
6 percent emerging between men and women just one year after university, increasing to an average of 17 percent after five years