Work in progress
New Zealand may have women in the nation's top posts, but women are yet to achieve equality with men, writes Bob Franklyn.
Bob Franklyn. © PCANZ
New Zealanders can boast of having women fill the top five positions of political power in the recent years – prime minister, leader of the opposition, governor general – and a few women have been made captains of industry. But as we look into the area of employment we find women are paid less than 80 per cent of the average pay of men. This drops even further – to as low as 50 per cent – among women from the Maori or Pacific Island ethnic groups.
There are also areas of discrimination against women in the workplace when considered for promotion, particularly related to the balancing of work commitments to that of family.
For men it can be considered a positive thing if they are family-orientated, however for women it can be viewed negatively. We also see that a woman needs to be at least 25 per cent better at her job before she will be promoted in her work over her male counterpart.
We need International Women's Day as it has been a rallying point to highlight many issues of inequality that face women today just as it has for many years in the past. It is an opportunity to highlight old and re-emerging problems that have yet to be brought back fully into the spotlight such as the growing trade in women and children as sex slaves, particularly for the sex industry in Europe.
Just as we highlighted to the governments of the world the need for free trade and relief of world poverty so do we as churches need again to take the lead in highlighting the growing trend of denigration of women and children by this terrible trade in human life.
Churches have led the way in the past when it has come to fighting for the right of equality and we again have an opportunity to take a further lead in the celebration of the International Women's Day by speaking out locally, nationally and internationally.