Women are under-represented in a number of key areas in New Zealand work places, and in some, women's participation is sliding backward, a Human Rights Commission report says.
The biennial New Zealand Census of Women's Participation 2010, published today, tracks progress, or the lack of it, for women across the corporate and private sectors at governance and management levels.
According to the report, 32 percent of the Members of Parliament are women, 30 percent of cabinet, 72 percent of teachers and 47 percent of school principals.
There are only three female editors out of 26 in the country's news organisations, 26 percent of the country's judges are women, as are 29 percent of the New Zealand Police.
Although 59 percent of the workers in public service are women, only six out of 34 public service departments had a woman chief executive this year.
The report identifies a 15.4 percent gender pay gap in the public service, which is greater than the total labour force gender pay gap of 13 per cent.
Equal Opportunities Commissioner Judy McGregor said the report identified who was doing well and who needed to improve and there was value in ``knowing and showing'' how public service departments were responding, given that women made up the majority of public servants.
``The public service has an opportunity to lead the way with pay and employment equity, but the results are very disappointing,'' Dr McGregor said.
The Department of Corrections was the only department where the number of women in management positions was proportional to the staff.
The report showed that universities were making steady progress for women at a time when improvements in other areas of professional and public life were lagging.
The country's eight universities all passed the 20 percent mark for the first time, with women making up 22.45 percent of professors and associate professors.
Dr McGregor said university-led initiatives to improve women's leadership and increase the number of senior academic women seeking promotion in New Zealand's universities were having an impact.
``With the large numbers of female tertiary students, it is only reasonable to expect a relevant proportion of senior female staff,'' she said.
The number of women appointed to Council Controlled Organisations -- features of Auckland's local body restructuring process -- stood at 27.6 percent, still below the Commonwealth target of 30 percent of women's representation in local government, the report said.
Women under-represented in powerful positions, report
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