Human Rights Commission

New Zealand has slipped one place to sixth position in the world in the 2011 Global Gender Gap report that measures 135 countries, falling behind Ireland.

“While New Zealand has much to be proud of, the report confirms the evidence of the Census of Women’s Participation in New Zealand that women’s equality is at a tipping point,” says Equal Employment Opportunities Commissioner, Dr Judy McGregor.

The internationally recognised Global Gender Gap Report 2011’s rankings and scores are produced by the World Economic Forum to quantify the magnitude of gender-based disparities over time.

“There is a stark warning from the latest Global Gender Gap Report. New Zealand can either continue to be a world leader or slide behind those who are maximising the returns on investing in women’s education and participation,” Dr McGregor says.

New Zealand is the only country in the top ten to have slipped a place from the 2010 rankings. The Nordic countries are again the winners. Iceland claims lead position for the third year in a row, followed by Norway, Finland and Sweden. Ireland has jumped over New Zealand and the report states that while both countries show improvement in their scores, Ireland has posted relatively large gains.

Although no country has yet achieved gender equality, all of the Nordic countries, with the exception of Denmark which is one behind New Zealand, have closed over 80 per cent of the gender gap and the report states that they serve as “models and useful benchmarks for international comparisons.”

The Global Gender Gap Index examines the gap between men and women in four fundamental categories: economic participation and opportunity, educational attainment, health and survival and political empowerment. Part of its international credibility lies in the fact it evaluates countries based on outcome variables rather then input measures.

“Given our proud record in women’s equality, which is one of the essential things that make us proud of being Kiwis, we clearly need new thinking about how we further women’s progress”, Dr McGregor said.

New Zealand ranks first equal in the world with 22 other countries for educational attainment.  It is ranked 6th highest in income, 8th in political empowerment and 11th in economic participation and opportunity.

The report notes that while many developed economies have succeeded in maximising the closing of the gender gap in education between men and women, few have capitalised on the investment. It also notes the Nordic countries top-down approach to promoting women’s leadership. For example, in Norway, publicly listed companies have been required to have 40 per cent of each sex on their boards since 2008 and other countries are adopting similar measures.

The report states that, “a system where women are not represented at the highest levels is both an unequal and inefficient system. We must design new measures to ensure that women are represented in political decision-making.” In the future the report plans to measure the differences between the participation of women and men at local levels of government, an area in which New Zealand has yet to meet the Commonwealth target of 30 per cent women’s participation.

New Zealand (6^th) and the Philippines (8^th) are the only two countries in the top 10 from the Asia Pacific region, which overall has closed just over 65 per cent of the gender gap. Australia is at 23rd, Singapore at 57th and Fiji at 109th.

Globally the 135 countries covered represent more than 90 per cent of the world’s population. The report shows that almost 96 per cent of the gaps in health outcomes between men and women and almost 93 per cent of the gap in educational attainment have closed. However, the gap between men and women on economic participation and political empowerment remains wide: only 59 per cent of the economic outcomes gap and only 19 per cent of the political outcomes gap has been closed.

The first Global Gender Gap report was produced in 2006 to address the need for a consistent and comprehensive measure for gender equality that can track a country’s progress over time. In 2011 the report concludes that there is a need for more rapid progress in closing gender gaps.

“For New Zealand we need new thinking, particularly about women’s economic participation and political and corporate sector empowerment to remain a world leader. If we don’t act now we will be overtaken by other countries who clearly see both the rights perspective and the efficiency viewpoint of gender equality,” Dr McGregor.