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Wahine of the World Unite Representation Womens March Aotearoa New Zealand

#WhyIVote – Representation Policies

Women’s March Aotearoa New Zealand promotes women’s representation as one of its core issues. We advocate for more women in leadership and decision-making positions across both public and private sectors. While women make up over half of the labour force in New Zealand, they continue to be under-represented in leadership and high-level decision making positions. As a result, the skills and qualifications that women acquire continue to be under-utilised and under-valued.

The Ministry for Women reported that in 2015 women made up only 20% of senior management and 17% of board positions of listed companies. Low representation of women in positions of leadership often has downstream effects, resulting in more women in low-paid or entry level positions. We advocate for an increase in leadership opportunities by encouraging organisations to create pathways of advancement for women.

While it is important to acknowledge the existence of the current gender gap in leadership positions, it is not enough to solely expect organisations to create equal opportunities for advancement. We advocate for the government to take an active role in encouraging organisations to set benchmarks and goals. This will help to ensure that the public and private sectors are taking responsibility to measure and improve gender equality in the New Zealand workforce.

An important step towards achieving greater representation for women in leadership positions is participation in transparent public reporting. Organisations can make a commitment to prioritising diversity in the workplace by publicising leadership position distribution and making their employment demographics accessible to the public. This would allow organisations to demonstrate their commitment to gender equality and representation in the workplace while being held accountable for their employment practices.

Women’s March Aotearoa New Zealand needs your help to inspire more women to vote in the September 2017 general election with our #WhyIVote action.

The women of Aotearoa New Zealand have had the right to vote for almost 125 years, but during the 2014 general election only two thirds of those aged 18 to 29 voted. We want to change that. Women deserve and need to make their voices heard.

Please help us inspire women to vote by telling us why #KateSentMe and #whyIvote.

Political Party Policies

Here’s where the different political parties stand on issues related to representation.

For more information, see The SpinOff Policy site and On The Fence website.

National
The National Party does not currently have a stated policy on gender equality and representation in the workplace.

Labour
While the Labour Party does not have a specific policy on gender equality and representation in the workplace, they do highlight the following commitments:
– A public service which is valued for its role in an active participatory democracy, that is, serving the democratically elected government of the day with free and frank advice, and protecting NZ citizens from the excessive use of Executive power.
– A public service which consists of equally paid women and men with skill and experience to advise Ministers on the implications of their decisions and deliver constant improvement in services to the public.
– A public service which is always open to change and modernisation for the sake of better public service delivery, is responsive to diversity, and recognises that the users of public services are entitled to the best customer services and respect.

Green
The Green Party promotes Breaking the Glass Ceiling, a specific policy which addresses gender equality and representation in the workplace:
– Support organisations that are working to increase the participation of women in high-level positions.
– Set targets for the percentage of women to be employed in the public service and fulfil senior management roles.

The Green Party also supports a Women’s Policy, highlighting the following commitments:
– Structural discrimination against women must be undone.
– Women are not a homogenous group and, to achieve equality, programmes and policies will need to be tailored to meet the needs of diverse groups of women.
– Acknowledging and honouring Te Tiriti o Waitangi is an essential step towards equality.
– Women offer unique and valuable perspectives, and the economy and society does better where women and men share leadership roles. Women’s participation in such positions must be encouraged.
– Women should receive equal pay for work of equal value and women’s unpaid work should be valued.
– Women with family responsibilities should not be discriminated against, and they should be supported in negotiating the tensions between their paid employment and family responsibilities.

Maori
The Maori Party does not currently have a stated policy on gender equality and representation in the workplace.

UnitedFuture
The UnitedFuture Party does not currently have a stated policy on gender equality and representation in the workplace.

ACT
The ACT Party does not currently have a stated policy on gender equality and representation in the workplace.

TOP
The TOP Party does not currently have a stated policy on gender equality and representation in the workplace.

Mana
The Mana Party does not currently have a stated policy on gender equality and representation in the workplace.

New Zealand First
The New Zealand First Party does not currently have a stated policy on gender equality and representation in the workplace.