Te Mahere Whai Mahi Wāhine Women’s Employment Action Plan provides a roadmap of actions towards a better future for women’s employment.

Te Mahere Whai Mahi Wāhine Women’s Employment Action Plan provides actions to improve the employment pathways for women who are marginalised in the labour market, in particular wāhine Māori, Pacific women, young and older women, disabled women, women who are former refugees and recent migrants, and the LGBTQIA+ community.

The plan focuses on actions that help women trying to balance unpaid work responsibilities with paid work, such as improving childcare access, closing the gender pay gap, reducing gender-based occupational segregation, and more flexible working arrangements. It addresses cross-system issues that affect women’s ability to secure skilled, higher paid work and to achieve economic resilience.

Te Mahere Whai Mahi Wāhine is structured across three success areas:

  1. Women are financially secure.
  2. The labour market is inclusive.
  3. Women are supported to meet their paid and unpaid work commitments without incurring penalties. 

The Action Plan was developed with our partner agencies and communities of women. It sets out actions to address women’s experiences in the labour market, including specific actions for wāhine Māori, Pacific women, young and older women, sole mothers, disabled women, women who are former refugees and recent migrants, and women in the rainbow community.

The plan seeks to address the inequitable outcomes between Māori and non-Māori and increase opportunities for wāhine Māori to maximise their potential and improve their financial security through participation in employment and training.

Employment Strategy

Manatū Wāhine developed Te Mahere Whai Mahi Wāhine Women’s Employment Action Plan as part of the all-of-government Employment Strategy.

There are six other employment action plans that form the all-of-government Employment Strategy: