Improving women’s employment outcomes can generate lifetime and intergenerational benefits for women, their children and whānau, and communities.
Women’s participation in the labour market has been steadily climbing over time, although this growth has slowed in recent years. Women still perform most of the unpaid work, in particular caring and community roles.
Women-dominated industries are often lower paid, and women are more likely to take breaks from the workforce to raise children. This adds up to a huge difference in lifetime earnings and wealth between women and men.
There are also greater social and economic disparities for wāhine Māori, Pacific women, ethnic and migrant women, disabled women, young women, older women, the rainbow community, and sole mothers.
Supporting women to be more economically resilient is important, and it is vital for the social and financial stability of their whānau, and for reducing child poverty.
We are focused on improving the social and economic wellbeing of women and girls across Aotearoa New Zealand by:
- working to address the gender pay gap by supporting organisations to measure and report on their gender pay gaps through the gender pay gap toolkit
- monitoring data and research related to women's employment and participation in the labour market
- supporting women into leadership and governance roles
- commissioning research on the access to childcare to support women in employment and the contributions of wāhine Māori to the economy
- supporting the implementation of the Employment Action Plan
- providing secretariat and policy support to the National Advisory Council on the Employment of Women.