Vanisa Dhiru
For a small country tucked away in the corner of the world, New Zealand is often seen as a trailblazer.
It was with this sense of pioneering action that in 1893, New Zealand secured one of its most significant world firsts; women won the right to vote.
To put into perspective how significant this was, most other democracies did not follow suit until at least the end of the First World War.
125 years ago, we led the world.
The situation now
But what about now? Has our giant leap to electoral equality set a precedent for New Zealand women living a life of equality?
It is certainly important to celebrate just how far we have come.
Many women in New Zealand have absolute choice about how they live their lives; whether they have children, the career opportunities they pursue, the education and healthcare available to them.
Gender Gap rating
The World Economic Forum completes an annual Gender Gap Index as a means of capturing and tracking the many gender-based disparities present across the world.
In the 2017 report, our performance ranks us Ninth out of the 144 countries analysed, and 1st in the East Asian and Pacific Region.
Again, this is a solid achievement for a tiny country.
Disturbing trend
There are a lot of things that make living in New Zealand as a woman pretty good. And the irony is, that Kiwi ‘sweet as, eh’ attitude can blind us for the very unequal realities we have.
‘Equality’ means the state of being equal, particularly in rights, status and opportunities. Scratching beneath the surface to reveal the unequal truth of women’s position in New Zealand society can be surprising and disturbing:
Pay imbalance
We have an average hourly gender pay imbalance of 13.9%, an increase of 0.8% from last year. Women will effectively be working for free from the middle of November for the rest of the year.
Even though comparable numbers of men and women in New Zealand are degree-qualified, after around three to five years of work experience, women are earning less than men in similar roles.
Physical violence
35% of New Zealand women have experienced (in 2017) physical and/or sexual intimate partner violence (IPV) in their lifetime. Add in psychological abuse, and that figure jumps to 55%.
Amnesty International has recently called for New Zealand to tighten our Harmful Digital Communications Act, in response to a study it conducted that found nearly 1/3 of New Zealand women have experienced online abuse and harassment.
Victim-blaming culture is alive and well in New Zealand.
Our recent Gender Equal NZ survey showed that 15% of New Zealanders think if someone was raped when they are drunk, they are at least partly responsible.
Motherhood devalued
We have a lack of understanding of, and as a result devalue, motherhood.
Research released in 2017 found that mothers work an average of 98 hours a week.
That is more than double the time that 9-5 workers spend at the office.
While this may change in the near future, abortion remains in the Crimes Act.
Male-dominated Boardrooms
Only 22% of positions on the boards of New Zealand’s listed companies in 2017 were held by women.
There are twice as many chief executives of the top 50 publicly-listed companies called David, Peter, Chris or Simon, and four times as many Johns, than there are women.
In a year as significant as this, the 125th anniversary of women’s suffrage in New Zealand, we absolutely need to celebrate how far we have come.
We need to recognise that we stand on the shoulders of so many pioneers who have fought to make this country a place where women really do have equal status.
But we cannot become complacent because things seem ok; women do not have equality in New Zealand, we’re not there yet.
There is work for all of us to do, no matter our gender, ability or ethnic background.
Vanisa Dhiru is President, National Council of Women New Zealand
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Photo Caption:
Vanisa Dhiru (Supplied)
