Women not only "hold up half the sky", they make up more than 75 percent of NZEI's membership.

NZEI's Women's Network focuses attention on issues such as pay and employment equity, Work-Life balance and human rights, as well as issues for Maori and Pasefika women, and women of colour.

The Women's Network publishes a regular newsletter and a Women's Network Kit. You can also download the Get Active poster here.

Current activities

Women's Network News from from Auckland DC

A report on Auckland DC Women's Network activities from December 2007 to March 2008, the AGM, and upcoming workshops and social events for 2008. Read more.

Full steam ahead on Pay and Employment Equity

The Government has put together a 5-year plan to address issues of pay and employment equity (PaEE) in all areas of work in New Zealand. To find out more about PaEE, including definitions, a PaEE quiz, and information about reviews in the education sector, go to our PaEE page.

Ministry of Education's PAEE information here.

Department of Labour PAEE newsletter

What's our current focus?

The Women's Network is looking at human rights issues as they affect the education sector and the women working in it. For more information on this, click here. For more information on Inclusive Education Action Group (IAEG) click here.

Latest news

81,000 people now jobless, as unemployment rises

Unemployment has risen in the first three months of the year, in another
sign economic growth is slowing.

Statistics New Zealand's Household Labour Force Survey for the three
months to March says the unemployment rate sits at 3.6%, up 0.2 of a
percentage point from the 22-year low recorded in December. The number
of people out of work is now 81,000.

Social Development and Employment Minister Ruth Dyson says the rise in
unemployment is marginal.

Council of Trade Unions' economist Peter Conway, however, says the
increase is reason for concern and confirmation the economy is slowing
rapidly.

He says the Reserve Bank should act and cut interest rates to help
soften the impact of the economic slowdown.

As well the unemployment rate increasing in the March quarter, the
number of people in employment fell - on a seasonally adjusted basis -
by 29,000.

The number of people in paid work has dropped by 29,000, due partly to a
significant fall in the number of women in full-time work.

The seasonally adjusted figures show employment fell 1.3% in the first
three months of this year, equivalent to 29,000 jobs.

Full-time employment dropped by 1.7%, driven by 22,000 fewer women in
full-time employment. The number of men in full-time work decreased by
0.6%.

The female unemployment rate increased by 0.4 percentage points to 3.9%,
while the male unemployment rate remained flat at 3.4%.

The unadjusted unemployment rates by ethnic group for the March 2008
quarter were: 8.6%

for Maori, 8.2% for Pacific peoples, 6.0% for "other" and 3.0% for
European.

Despite a small increase in female part-time employment over the
quarter, total part-time employment decreased by 1.1%. This was due to a
decline in male part-time employment of 4,000.

New Zealand Census of Women’s Participation

If New Zealand aspires to being a highly-skilled economy in the modern, global marketplace we need to maximise the talent pool of both men and women at work. We also need both men and women to contribute to building strong and cohesive communities and for both to be well represented in public and political life.

The New Zealand Census of Women’s Participation 2008 shows how we are responding to these challenges. The results reveal a worrying report card for women’s equality. Some areas of the public sector which have traditionally made positive, incremental progress in the past have now slowed or stalled. The corporate sector’s performance in the appointment of women to the boardrooms of major listed New Zealand companies remains dismal.

The data published in the New Zealand Census of Women’s Participation shows unequivocally that gender equality is still far from realised in New Zealand’s boardrooms, businesses, schools, universities, and unions, and that we lag behind other similar developed nations despite our hard-won reputation for gender progress.

Link to the New Zealand Census of Women’s Participation.

Progress of women to senior academic positions glacial, says university staff union

Although the number of women holding senior academic positions in New Zealand universities has increased in the last year, progress toward equity is still glacial according to the Association of University Staff (AUS).

AUS National President, Associate Professor Maureen Montgomery, said that the New Zealand Census of Women’s Participation 2008, released by the Human Rights Commission today, revealed that women held just under 20 percent of senior academic position in New Zealand universities in 2007, up by 2.28 percent from the year before.

Despite the fact that women make up nearly half the academic workforce in universities, they remain clustered in the lower academic rankings. The proportion of women professors is only 15.1 percent and women associate professors 23.19 percent. Six universities improved their proportion of women in senior academic positions, while two, AUT and Massey, lost ground.

Associate Professor Montgomery said that, while there was no quick fix to improving the proportion of women employed in senior academic positions, New Zealand universities could look to Australia, where that country’s vice-chancellors had undertaken some solid initiatives towards improving the under representation of women in senior academia. “What is needed in this country is a sophisticated and multi-faceted approach to promoting equity,” she said. “We need to examine both structural and cultural barriers, and it would be a welcome sign if New Zealand vice-chancellors demonstrated the same level of collective commitment to reducing such barriers as their Australian counterparts were doing.”

The proportion of women filling ministerial appointments on university councils ranged from 75 percent (or three out of four positions) at AUT, to none out of four at the University of Waikato.

For further information or comment please contact:

Associate Professor Maureen Montgomery
Phone (03) 364 2488 (Work)
Email: maureen.montgomery@canterbury.ac.nz

Flexible Working Arrangements Bill passed

New legislation will enable employment rights for workers with carer responsibilities. Employers will have a statutory duty to consider any such request seriously, and to seek to accommodate it if they can do so within the regular hours of work. and without disadvantaging others in the workplace.

The Green Party has heralded the Bill as a new era of more flexible workplaces.

The Bill, sponsored by Green MP Sue Kedgley, establishes a new employment right which will allow any employee with responsibilities to care for children, dependent or disabled adults, or whänau, to seek to vary their hours or place of work.

“This means a person can ask for a change to their start and finish times, adjust their work hours, work 'compressed hours,' seek to work from home, or any other flexible arrangement that will enable them to better meet the demands of paid employment and their caring responsibilities. Read more

CTU Media Release 21 November 2007

Kedgley’s Flexi-work Bill expanded, could pass by Christmas

Some of you will have been following the Flexible Working Hours debate. New Zealand has one of the longest and most inflexible working hours in the world, and the amount of time parents are able to spend with their children has declined steeply as a result.

Green MP Sue Kedgley's Flexible Working Arrangements Bill has completed its committee reading stages in Parliament, and should have its final reading and become law before the end of the year.

Ms Kedgley said she was particularly pleased that the new legal right to request flexible working hours will be extended to any employee with caring responsibilities. To read more click here.

Families Commission Recommends 13 months paid leave for new parents

Press Release by Families Commission 28 August 2007

The Families Commission says that the government's parental leave policy should be extended so that more people are eligible for support.

''The current provisions are moving in the right direction. However, we recommend that by 2015 parents are provided with a total of 13 months paid leave, including a month's paid leave for fathers. Parental leave would continue to be fully funded by the government,'' said Chief Commissioner Rajen Prasad.

The Commission has just released a report which draws on national and international research and experiences to make a series of recommendations for change. read more.

Amnesty International Highlights Plight of Women Worldwide

Amnesty International is using International Women's Day to highlight the plight of women in Mexico and the Democratic Republic of Congo, two areas of the workd whete the rights of women are routinely ignored. Download the full release here.

Other resources

You can access activism issue sheets:

Introduction to Women and Activism Issue Sheets

Human Rights and Discrimination

Bullying and Harassment

Finding out more about the Women's Network

Each NZEI District Council has a women's network convenor to promote and co-ordinate the women's network in your area. There are also women's network representatives at branch level who keep members informed.

For more information on how you can get involved in the Women's Network, talk to your worksite rep or email womensnetwork@nzei.org.nz. You can also contact your district council's women's network convenor, email NZEI Executive Officer Susan Elliot or phone her at (04) 3822 728.