New Zealand leads the way on closing gender gap in top jobs

A study by Honeypot shows women account for 40.1 per cent of senior or managerial roles in the New Zealand workforce. Photo / 123RF

New Zealand ranks among the best countries in the world when it comes to the gender gap in senior managerial roles, a study shows.

The study, released by leading technology career platform Honeypot, revealed New Zealand ranked fourth equal in the percentage of women in senior or managerial roles out of 41 OECD and EU countries.

However, the study's main focus highlighted an overall lack of women in senior roles, with women accounting for less than 50 per cent of senior positions in every nation.

According to the study, women accounted for 40.1 per cent of senior or managerial roles in the New Zealand workforce, trailing only Latvia (44.4 per cent), United States (43.5 per cent) and Hungary (40.5 per cent).

The release was part of a larger study - The 2018 Women in Tech Index - which analysed 22 factors including wage, pay gap and inequality data to determine the nations which offer the best opportunities for career progression.

Emma Tracey, co-founder of Honeypot, noted the importance of the data when discussing the gender pay gap.

"It's incredibly important to include this aspect of gender disparity when discussing the pay gap, because as long as men account for the majority of top earners, women will never be able to close the gap," Tracey said.

"This could be due in part to maternity-related disadvantages for women, who are often overlooked for promotions or return to underskilled jobs post childbirth," she said.

"Moving forwards, governments could look to the example of countries such as Sweden whose progressive maternity and paternity laws, as well as subsidised child care, has increased their gender balance in the workplace."

New Zealand ranked seventh overall when it came to closing the gender pay gap.

Figures showed New Zealand had an income inequality of 7.92 per cent, with women earning an average of $49,076 compared with the country's total average workforce income of $53,315.

"The World Economic Forum reported in 2017 that economic gender equality will not be reached for another 170 years, but that equality for women in the labour force would add $28 trillion to the global economy by 2025," Tracey said.