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. We estimate that, on average, women earn $888,108 less over their lifetimes than 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:

Bringing Gender In

Use our Bringing Gender In tool to help you explore the gender impacts of your policy.

What’s my Gender Pay Gap?

The Government has been working to eliminate the gender pay gap for more than 60 years. We are actively working with Te Kawa Mataaho Public Service Commission and other agencies to reduce the gender pay gap in the public sector. We are also working to support employers and individuals to close the gender pay gaps in their industries. 

We have developed the What’s My Gender Pay Gap? tool that you can use to find out how the gender pay gap varies by occupation, industry, and other factors, to see how it impacts you.

You can also find out information on what the government is doing, and what employers and you as an individuals, can do to close the gender pay gap below: