Ministry for Women

The Ministry's work in the 'greater economic independence' area focuses on "enabling women to make informed choices that lead to better lifetime incomes". Efforts in this area focus on the factors that can support women to more fully access economic opportunities and resources, such as:[1]

• supporting women on low incomes and benefits into sustainable, quality work
• encouraging women into higher paid, less-traditionally female work
• strengthening enablers of women's employment, such as affordable, quality childcare, flexible work and a tax-transfer system that ensures an adequate net return from paid work.

There are two performance indicators to measure the impact of the Ministry's work in this area:

• Women's income: the percentage of women in the lowest two income quintiles will reduce from 59 percent
• Women's qualifications: The percentage of industry trainees who are women, including Maori and Pacific women, will increase from 29 percent. The percentage of graduates at bachelor level or higher in information technology and engineering and related fields who are women will increase from the range of 21–23 percent.

There is compelling evidence that greater gender diversity in governance correlates with better decision making and organisational performance, providing economic and other benefits.[8] Having more women in leadership roles ensures a wider range of views for key decisions, and brings stronger connections with customers, stakeholders and investors. There is a need for a dual focus on demand for and supply of women board members.

The Ministry assists decision makers to achieve greater diversity in governance, in both the public and private sectors, by making the case for change and advising on effective strategies to realise change.

The Ministry also assists women to know about the type of governance roles that align with their skills and interests and how to pursue those roles. The Ministry provides women candidates for vacancies on state sector boards and, on request, for other entities.

The Ministry also operates a Nominations Service, which puts forward appropriate women candidates for a range of governance roles.[9]

Intimate partner violence and sexual violence are the most common forms of violence against women in New Zealand, and are of great cost to individuals, their families and the economy. Treasury has estimated that sexual offending costs the New Zealand economy $1.2 billion a year and is by far the most expensive crime per incident.[10] The consequences of this violence can be long-lasting, with adverse effects on health, relationships, children's welfare and education, employment, productivity, earnings, and quality of life.

The Ministry works with other government departments on issues of intimate partner and sexual violence, with particular attention to minimising the incidence of revictimisation, and an increasing focus on prevention.

Its recent work has focused on:[1]

• building on a 2009 research project that looked at effective interventions for adult victim/survivors of sexual violence
• monitoring progress and outcomes of policy developments in other countries, to apply lessons relevant to New Zealand

There are two performance indicators to measure the impact of the Ministry's work in this area:

• The percentage of women who experience intimate partner violence at some time in their lifetime will decrease from 25 percent.
• The percentage of women who experience sexual violence at some time in their lifetime will decrease from 29 percent.