Women’s rights
Through time Women’s rights have Improved however to this day in the New Zealand
society women still face inequality in Employment.
How are Women’s employment rights affected in NZ society, have they tried to overcome
this discrimination today?
Through time women's rights have improved, however, to this day in New Zealand's society,
women still face inequality in employment. The point of this report is to educate and create
awareness of issues that has been happening for decades. Discrimination against women
still exists in different forms in workplaces. The work environment has sometimes been
referred to as being an inhospitable place for women because of the multiple types of
gender inequalities present (Eagly, Cali 2007). Workplace discrimination negatively affects
women’s earnings and opportunities through the gender wage gap, the deficiency of
women in leadership, and the more extended time required for women (vs. men) to
advance in their professions (Blau, Devaro 2007). This report will investigate the good and
the bad of what women face in employment, in addition to the past and present of
women’s employment rights, furthermore the resolutions of preventing any discrimination
of women’s rights in employment.
Discrimination in the workplace has confronted women over a wide span of time; their
employment rights still tend to be affected yet there are advantages women gain, and men
do not. For instance, women can often obtain jobs that men rather wouldn’t, jobs that are
seen only fit for women even though it is sexist it is an advantage for females to become
employed. The issue with women employment rights is that they are seen to be less than
men not equal to. Even though the government has said to be focused on women being
given the opportunity and choice to utilize their skills and talents across the work industry it
just hasn’t happened yet. In the hospitality industry, there are far more women than men,
women, and men in hospitality seem to be equal and have equal opportunities than in any
other work industries. Women’s employment rights mostly state how they ought to have an
equal opportunity as men, women’s employment rights are impacted as in New Zealand
society men ideally still pick up occupations that women rarely do. Hospitality shows less
discrimination towards women, but in an overall workplace context most often than not
women are said to face disadvantages in employment in New Zealand. However, there are
a few advantages to being women. Women in work we will receive more assistance that
men, Women have the same rights as men to receive government benefits. According to the
ministry of social development at the end of March 2010, of the 325,000-individuals
receiving a working-age benefit, around 57 percent (186,000) were women. At the end of
March 2017, 278,236 working-age individuals were receiving the significant advantage over
half (57.5 percent) of the primary benefit recipients were female. Even though men are
treated to be more important, it is women accomplish more work. Women are still able to
land positions more female-dominated the kind men would not want. We as women may
think we have it terrible in employment that we are not treated the way men are; however,
women are hard working and even though they are not paid as much as men women are
offered significantly more work benefits.
Women in New Zealand are highly unemployed because women tend to get high education
qualifications, causing the rate in unemployment for females to go lower, as oppose to
those that have the opposite get employed first. The New Zealand work constrain
participation rate for women is presently at 64.72 percent (March 2015). Men's work force
interest rate is 75 percent. The female unemployment rate is higher than that of men (6.3
percent analyzed with 5.4 percent for men, in March 2015). The level of unemployment is
most astounding for Māori and Pacific ladies. Men get paid more because women are more
likely only to gain part time jobs as they have more duties to worry about, e.g., maternity
leave, although this gender- gap pay has affected women for quite a while they are now
called “unexplained” factors. New Zealand's gender pay gap is it is reliably one of the lowest
in the world when compared with full-time workers. The pay gap is 12 percent (2016). Gender pay gap means women's hourly rates stay behind that of men's. Women in
New Zealand are doing much more unpaid work than men. Around 63 percent of women's
work is unpaid, and 35 percent of men's work is unpaid. In the employment area, men get
paid more as oppose to women this is because of the job choices that woman make
decreasing their chances of getting higher pay. A big issue in the workplace is that a lot of
women are affected by stereotyping where we as women are made out just to stay, do the
housework and the cleaning and manage the children. Whether Past or Present day women
are stereotyped, the cycle has broken out the gender roles that were created by society
long ago.
New Zealand in 1893, was the first self-governing country that had allowed women to vote.
Before this act came into place, Kate Sheppard started a movement to push for the rights
for women to vote in 1892 which had led to almost 20,000 signatures but unfortunately
turned unsuccessful. With the first petition not turning out to what she had expected it to
be, she then started another petition hoping to make this one successful. 23,853 signatures
were presented with another 7,000 signature before the request was submitted to
parliament. According to (Govtnz, 2017), women in New Zealand did not have the right to
stand for parliament. Until Elizabeth McCombs became the first female prime minister in
New Zealand. Being elected after 40 years since the women’s suffrage came into place. In
1981, there were only 9% of women as members of parliament, but since in 2014, it had
increased to 31% of women. When New Zealand was under colonization, women did not get
a lot of privileges to work or any protection rights. Women were known as ‘housewives’
who stayed the home majority of the time either looking after the kids, doing the washing
or preparing dinner for their husbands for when they come home from a long day at work.
Today a lot of that has changed. In 1972, the equal pay act was put into place so that men
and women that have the same type of job have the same wages. 1985, parental leave was
put into the system for mothers who are in their final stages of their pregnancy until their
child is 3-6 months old. Paid parental leave was then implemented in 2002 where the
mother will still be getting paid while being away from work to look after their child. Not
only is this for women, but men can also participate in this act. Meaning, if the mother
decides to go back to work early, the father of the child can go on parental leave for the
remaining duration. Depending on their job criteria, they are given up to 6 – 12 months of
leave.
With women, not being able to work in the past due to the law, today women are
becoming more successful due to the legislations implemented by the government.
New Zealand has been changing and making improvements so that women in the workplace
and employment have the rights equal to men. In New Zealand and abroad, with the
macroeconomic expenses of imbalance now unmistakably perceived by worldwide offices,
for example, the International Monetary Fund (Ostry, Berg and Tsangarides, 2014). Overall,
in the June 2014 quarter the Household Labor Force Survey indicates rates for the 15 or
more populaces of 74.9% for men, against 63.1% for ladies. In the June 2014 quarter, the
unemployment rate for women was higher at 6.4% than the male rate of 4.8% and had
dropped less over the previous year. The under-employment rate (those seeking more
hours or full-time work) was also higher for women, at 6.1% against 2.6%. A critical late
activity to enhance the circumstance of lower-waged workers is the campaign for employers
to pay a living wage, over the ordered the lowest pay permitted by law. Equal pay for work
of equal value While it has been argued that general approaches have more effect on the
position of women than targeted ones, progressing horizontal occupational segregation
raises the need to consider whether women in these sorts of jobs are compensated fairly.
Reducing level and vertical partition is a usual procedure, so it will be sufficient for the labor
market to display gender equity. Executing equal pay for work of equal value principles is
one such intervention which could lessen the undervaluation of female-dominated work. In
New Zealand, it is standard practice to express the gender pay gap as far as the median
hourly rate for all employees. According to the New Zealand Income Survey, 71 percent of
part-time workers are women, and 58 percent of full-time workers are men. New Zealand
provides paid parental leave (PPL) after the birth of a child. However, there continues to be
a debate about eligibility criteria, and furthermore about the duration of leave and level of
pay. Robust mechanisms, including legislation, are needed to progress pay and employment
equity. This will require a broad political commitment and public consensus. Changes to the
provision of early-childhood education funding already announced. The availability of early
childhood education is scarce in rural areas and parents who work non-standard hours also
have difficulty accessing early-childhood services. It is increased public awareness of the
issue and political will to reduce the level of violence in the community Representation
Improving female representation at CEO and senior management level, and on boards in the
public and private sectors
All things considered, the rights women have continuingly changed. Even though women
face very little inequality and discrimination in the workplace, there still tends to be small
remnants of this discrimination in work environments. In New Zealand society women face
issues in employment. As stated in this report women’s employment rights have been
affected in both good and bad ways. We can see that our society is trying to make an
efficient change in the way women are treated in all aspects of employment. To this day
women are beginning to be seen in the same status as men and the continuation of this will
help to overcome these issues that challenge women’s employment rights.
References
Eagly, H. A., & Carli, L. L. (2008). Through the Labyrinth: The Truth about How
Women become Leaders. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Publishing.,53(2),
363-366. doi:10.2189/asqu.53.2.363
Blau, F. D., & Devaro, J. (2007). New Evidence on Gender Differences in Promotion
Rates: An Empirical Analysis of a Sample of New Hires. Industrial Relations,46(3),
511-550. doi:10.1111/j.1468-232x.2007.00479.x
Ministry of Social Development ‘National Benefit Factsheets, March 2010’ \
http://www.msd.govt.nz/about-msd-and-our-work/ publicationsresources/
statistics/benefit/2010-national-benefit-factsheets.html
Ministry of Social Development ‘National Benefit Factsheets, March 2017’
https://www.msd.govt.nz/about-msd-and-our-work/publicationsresources/
statistics/benefit/archive-2013.html
http://www2.stats.govt.nz/domino/external/web/nzstories.nsf/0/1edcc2a6a51552d
3cc256b1800085b5d?OpenDocument
http://women.govt.nz/work-skills/income/gender-pay-gap
http://freeessaywebsite.blogspot.co.nz/2008/03/women-in-workplacedisadvantages.
html
Govtnz. (2017). Govtnz. Retrieved 14 May, 2017, from
http://women.govt.nz/about/new-zealand-women/history
https://nzhistory.govt.nz/politics/womens-suffrage
http://women.govt.nz/about/new-zealand-women/history