Politics
Until the last election New Zealand had a Westminster style government, but switched then to MMP, a mixed member proportional system. New Zealand now has its first woman Prime Minister heading a minority government of centre right persuasion, and the Leader of the Opposition is also a woman. Recently the country had its first and only female Governor General.

New Zealand was the first country in the world to give women the vote, in 1893. Does this mean that New Zealand has gender equality or gender equity? Unfortunately is does not. At present only 30% of the Members of Parliament are women and apart from the Prime Minister there is only one female member of Cabinet. Some New Zealand mayors are women. However, considering that just over half the population is female there is a disproportionately low number of women in public office, on boards of public companies and on staffs of universities.

Why a disproportionately low number of women in top positions?
Many possible contributing factors include difficult work-family relations, gender discrimination, women's low expectations, and traditional gender roles. There is evidence that there is no lack of women's ability or academic achievement.

Women's academic achievement
Women's educational attainment has steadily increased over the last decade. The proportion of women of working age with a post-school qualification has increased from 28.6% to 37% between 1987 and 1996. Nonetheless, a significant gender gap remains, with the percentage of working age men with post-school qualifications rising from 40.1% to 47.1% over the same period.

The rise in the number of women receiving a post-school qualification is underpinned by the rising percentage of girls staying longer at school and reaching higher educational levels. The improvement has been such that by the mid-1990s the girls' average achievement levels were higher than the boys'. In 1994 85% of girls went on to the sixth form year (Year 12), and 52% stayed to the 7th form (Year 13). Retention rates for boys were lower, 78% and 45% respectively. Similarly in 1993 a higher percentage of girls gained A and B grades in School Certificate and University Bursary/Entrance Scholarship (Years 11 and 13) than their male counterparts.

More women graduating
A New Zealand Vice Chancellor's committee survey states that more women are getting involved in higher education. In 1974 one third of all graduates of New Zealand universities were women. In 1995 half were women and female graduates outnumbered male graduates for the first time. This trend continued into 1996. Furthermore, more females than males have been in full-time university study since 1992.

Women's participation in tertiary education has shown a marked increase over the past decade, and in 1995 54% of the university, polytechnic and college of education students were women. However, although more women are undertaking non-traditional degrees, they continue to be under-represented in the degrees expected to lead to higher paying occupations, and over-represented in those expected to be lower paying. In 1994, for example, women obtained 14% of engineering degrees, 27% of computing degrees, 43% of commerce and business degrees, 42% of natural and applied science degrees, but 66% of humanities degrees and 79% of education degrees.

Women also received 53% of bachelor degrees awarded in 1994, but fewer stayed on at university to complete post-graduate study. The graduate survey showed that 17% of bachelor graduates were not using their qualifications and experience in their job five years after graduation. In 1994 women received 50% of bachelor honours degrees awarded, but only 44% of masters and doctorates.

The economic scene - towards a market economy
In the 50s, 60s and the beginning of the 70s, New Zealand was known for its full employment, egalitarian society and mixed economy. In the 70s the economic situation was affected by such external shocks as the oil crises, deteriorating terms of trade, and a loss of a guaranteed export market when Britain joined the European Common market. Financially strapped, the new centre-left government (ironically) of 1984 steered New Zealand towards the monetarist, supply side economic ideology of privatisation, corporatisation, price stability and market forces.

How has this new direction affected the labour market and women?
Down sizing and a shrinking of the public sector has led to redundancies, marginalisation and casualisation, as well as the growth of part-time employment.

Market forces and women's employment
It has been stated that the current international trends towards marketisation have far-reaching gender implications, which present both opportunity and crisis for women worldwide. International capital appears to favour female labour in its global search for cost cutting and profit maximisation.

However there is a growth in the secondary labour market of low paid, temporary or part-time work which underemploys, underpays and underrates workers. Women often choose such work because of its availability and flexible hours. Women need to be well qualified to gain employment in the primary labour market where career prospects, training, high salaries, flexibility and security are more likely to prevail.

An increasing proportion of employees in the primary sector are women as they become better educated and aspire to professional and academic careers. A recent survey on graduate employment shows that graduate employment prospects are now better than at any time since the mid-1980s, as skill shortages begin to appear. Tertiary qualifications, of which the university degree is till preeminent, are at a premium. Competition should put upward pressure on remuneration levels.

However, in spite of these positive words about the employment and remuneration of university graduates and the higher education of women, we read about some problems.

Graduate women in New Zealand underemployed?
A New Zealand survey was conducted by the ministry of Research Science and Technology to examine the experiences of a cohort of graduates in the first five years after they graduated. Unemployment among graduates was low, about 1.2% in 1996. However, a significant minority of graduates were working in areas which did not need tertiary qualifications. Of concern was the fact that 17% of education and 13.7% of humanities graduates were in this position five years after graduation. Although not specifically stated in the report, this situation would apply mainly to women as they are over-represented in the Arts, and tended to be underemployed and to revert to more traditional work after marriage.

Graduate women in agriculture declining?
Falling numbers of women agricultural graduates in recent years have been attributed to the cost of tertiary education versus the poor salaries of graduates in agriculture. Female graduates are said to be paid half of what their male counterparts receive. Women need to promote their worth.

Female graduate students face difficulties.
The 1996 Post Graduate Women's survey "Take us Seriously", conducted by the Education Office of the University of Canterbury Students' Association, revealed that women rated their experience of post graduate study at the University of Canterbury less positively than their male counterparts. One problem is that female postgraduates often have male supervisors. Over half the post graduate women students surveyed did not feel valued members of their department.

Female students were twice as likely as male students to feel that their department was discouraging, and twice as many men as women held scholarships. The lack of financial support is seen to be a significant factor in determining whether or not women choose to continue with post graduate study. The unintended effects of a system designed for men and run by men are many and often mean that female students feel isolated, vulnerable and ignored. The situation needs to change if women are to develop their potential in academic life to gain the qualifications necessary to redress the current staffing imbalance in New Zealand universities.

New Zealand university staff gender skewed
In 1997 in New Zealand universities 41 females and 396 males were full Professors, 35 females and 440 males were Readers or Associate Professors and 311 females and 1291 males were Senior Lecturers.

You may wish to read the second part of this series.