Manatū Wāhine Ministry for Women is the Government’s principal advisor on improving the lives of wāhine women and kōtiro girls in Aotearoa New Zealand.

We are here to make a difference for the communities we serve in Aotearoa New Zealand by ensuring the voices of women and girls are heard and their perspectives are included in the development of government policy and initiatives.

We provide important system leadership, working across government and with stakeholders, including Māori, Pacific peoples, and diverse communities, to improve outcomes for women and girls.

We provide and deliver a range of services, tools, and advice to increase women and girls’ leadership, participation, safety, and wellbeing in society. 

To achieve this vision, our mission is to drive improvements for all women and girls through focusing on four strategic outcomes. 

  1. Wāhine Māori: Wāhine Māori have improved outcomes. 
  2. Social and economic wellbeing: all women and girls enjoy economic security and thrive throughout their lives.
  3. Participation: all women and girls fully participate in society.
  4. Safety: all women and girls are safe from all forms of violence.

The first outcome is focused on improved outcomes for Wāhine Māori and underpins the other three outcomes. These outcomes require us to look at women and girls in all their diversity to understand more about how we can improve the lives of women and girls across Aotearoa New Zealand.

What we do

At Manatū Wāhine, we focus on issues of significance from a gendered perspective that are priorities for the Minister for Women and the Government. We work alongside other government agencies and organisations to ensure their work will improve the outcomes for women and girls in Aotearoa New Zealand.

Manatū Wāhine is focused on finding solutions to complex issues, such as pay equity, pay transparency, and family and sexual violence, of which women and girls have been impacted by for a long time. 

We  are committed Te Tiriti o Waitangi and to working in partnership

Manatū Wāhine Ministry for Women is committed to assist to fulfil our Te Tiriti o Waitangi obligations. We support our people to have the capability and confidence to improve outcomes for wāhine and kōtiro Māori in their work and to build effective partnerships with Māori. 

We represent all women

Manatū Wāhine represents the interests of all women, including transgender women, and we recognise the right of all people to self-identify. We acknowledge the diversity of women and girls in Aotearoa New Zealand, and focus on improving outcomes for wāhine Māori, Pacific women, migrant women, women who are former refugees, women with disabilities, and the rainbow community. 

As at 30 June 2023, there were 2.6 million women and girls in Aotearoa New Zealand. 71% of women identified as being of New Zealand European descent, 17% identified as Māori, 15% as Pacific, 8% as Asian, and 1% as Middle Eastern, Latin American, or African.

We aim to ensure that we reflect the views and the varied experiences of Aotearoa New Zealand women and girls and incorporate this into our policy initiatives and advice. 

Our current work programme includes: 

The Minister for Women is Hon Nicola Grigg. She is also the Minister of State for Trade and the Associate Minister of Agriculture (Horticulture). Minister Grigg is currently on maternity leave until mid-2024. Hon Louise Upston is Acting Minister over this period. Minister Upston is also the Minister for Social Development and Employment, the Community and Voluntary Sector, and Child Poverty Reduction.

Find out more about our leadership team.

Read our Statement of Intent for 2021-2025 that sets out our ambitions as a Ministry for the next four years. 

Read our 2023 Annual Report that outlines our organisation’s progress against our key priorities and financial statements to 30 June 2023.

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Te Karanga News Brief

You can view all issues of Te Karanga, the Ministry's news brief, to stay updated on our latest work.