Editorial: Where are all the women leading the city?

Hori BOP Leaming, Murray Guy, Max Maon, Graeme Purches, John Robson, Kelvin Clout, Noel Peterson and Steve Morris. Photos/file

At this year's Games it is the women who are shining with six medals. Go our girls! You are making our medals haul impressive.

One table where women are depressingly scarce ran in our Bay of Plenty Times Weekend paper - the list of mayoral and council nominations.

In a city of Tauranga's size and growth - New Zealand's fastest growing city, a place where you have been reading our stories about the booming construction industry and the growth of the local economy, the place where Aucklanders want to be - in this glorious city- out of mayors standing for Tauranga's mayoralty there is not one woman. In the council wards female candidates are under-represented. As are Maori, and ethnicities such as Asian and Indian.

No women candidates for mayor makes me feel concerned at who can properly represent our perspectives and values.

Women are consistently under-represented in leading local government roles. Statistics New Zealand figures show that approximately just a third of local council representatives are women.

The same happens in the private sector. In publicly listed companies, 77 per cent have less than 30 per cent women directors on their boards. Thirty-two per cent of the top 122 NZX-listed companies had no women on their boards, and just 5 per cent of the companies achieved 50 per cent women directors.

Last week Institute of Directors chief executive Simon Arcus said it was time to see diversity statistics improve saying, "there are good economic arguments for getting the right skill mix, and gender, onto boards.

Research shows even one woman on a board can enhance its performance."

The same logic applies to the public sector. Thank you to those who have stood for the mayoralty and council. But it would have been nice to see more diversity in the mix.