Briefing to the Incoming Minister 2007

Click here for a PDF version of the Briefing to the Incoming Minister

Executive Summary

This briefing is designed to provide you with an overview of the Ministry of Women’s Affairs (MWA), meet your immediate needs for information, and begin a process of ongoing discussion to make sure we are providing you with the support you need in your new role.

The focus of this brief is on getting to know us, learning what we are working on right now, and understanding the immediate and longer-term challenges and opportunities. It also provides a foundation for further, more detailed, oral and written briefings, and is the start of our ongoing advice to you.

The briefing is structured as follows:

Introduction

There are some key things about the Ministry and how we work that influence our work priorities and approach.

Section 1

Outcomes for women still have the potential to improve
This is why we need to work on improving women’s lives in an environment where some people think that women have 'made it’.

Section 2

The government has a vital role to contribute to improving these outcomes for women
People can accept that further progress is still needed to achieve women’s equality and empowerment to fully contribute, but sometimes believe that women can do it themselves. We lay out the government’s commitment to achieving outcomes for women.

Section 3

MWA leads and co-ordinates government effort to improve the circumstances of New Zealand women
Whilst the activities that contribute to outcomes for women are covered by the work programmes of many parts of the public sector, the role of MWA to lead and co-ordinate is crucial. How we do this is critical to our success – we prioritise rigorously and constantly, and maintain strong relationships to ensure our work is effective.

Section 4

We have a busy current work programme
We have a range of ongoing projects across our policy, nominations and international work. Our policy work covers a wide variety of sectors, problems and opportunities for women. We provide an overview of our priority projects and invite you to engage in our current programme.

Section 5   

There are some things requiring your early engagement
We have a number of important areas of work that require your immediate attention. We also want to engage with you early about your focus and how we can best support your efforts. We also look forward to discussing ideas on our strategic direction.

Section 6  

We are in a strong position to support your leadership
We introduce ourselves to you and tell you a little about our structure and who we are.

 

Introduction

key messages about the Ministry of Women’s Affairs

We are a small but influential policy agency of 37 people and a budget of $4.46 million. Our job is to work on issues to improve the lives of New Zealand women. We work collaboratively across government and in other spheres of influence to create an environment where women can reach their full potential and have their talents and contributions recognised, for the benefit of all New Zealand.

We have found the most effective strategy is to prioritise and deliver high-quality policy work. We do that by focusing on the areas of greatest need, where we can make the biggest difference for women, and where others are not doing the work. In these areas, we provide advice based both on evidence and our expertise in gender issues, because this gives us the biggest influence.

We do not act as advocates because we have found that simply advocating for issues is not an effective way for a policy agency to influence others to achieve outcomes for women. A persuasive case backed up by convincing evidence is a far more powerful tool and assists with prioritisation.

We are a top policy shop, which means our advice is valued by others. Because we are a credible and reliable agent who helps others to find solutions to complex problems, we are often welcomed around the table. The New Zealand Institute of Economic Research (NZIER) recently ranked our policy work first equal in the group of 12 agencies assessed.

We have highly productive relationships across government, NGOs, and individuals to improve our policy advice, nominations and international work. We focus on relationships to build confidence in our work, obtain insight into the views and experiences of women, be aware of emerging issues, share government information, and work collaboratively to support government priorities.

We boost women in leadership roles by putting forward suitably qualified women candidates to state sector boards and committees. We take a strategic approach to influence others to promote women, particularly in the private sector, because diversity is proven to boost governance performance.

We make sure we consider the needs of a diverse range of women, particularly those with multiple disadvantages. Men are not always our comparator or benchmark. At times there is more diversity of experience between different groups of women than there is between women and men.

The Action Plan for New Zealand Women gives us clarity about the government’s goals, which span the government’s three key themes. On some issues we lead the policy work because we see a gap or are best-placed to bring a gendered perspective, but most areas of the Action Plan are being led by other departments. In that work we are either influencing or monitoring the work of others.

We have a strong vision for all New Zealand women: resilience, real choices, thriving society.

 

Section 1. Outcomes for women still have the potential to improve

In some outcome areas, women are doing relatively well, notably in education, rising workforce participation, and in some health areas. A small number of high-profile successful women also can give the impression that women have ‘made it’ in New Zealand. But these successes mask that many women continue to have poorer outcomes relative to men and to each other. Māori women in particular continue to have poorer outcomes in many key areas. Women are overwhelmingly the victims of violence, are lower paid than men, and bear the greater share of responsibility for unpaid work. Women are still missing from the top echelons of leadership, especially in the private sector. There is still potential for significant gains to be made, for individual women, and for New Zealand generally. If more women can reach their full potential, and have their talents and contributions recognised, New Zealand stands to gain substantially, both economically and socially.

Women are doing well in education
Young women, on average, achieve higher qualification levels in secondary education than young men, although Māori and Pacific women do significantly less well on average.¹  Women are also participating in tertiary education at a higher rate than men.²   

More women are working than ever before, but women don’t yet have equality at work (with men, or with each other)
Women’s participation in the paid workforce has increased to a record-high of 62.2 percent, but is still characterised by part time work, low pay and concentration in female-dominated occupations. In 2007, women’s median hourly earnings were 12.1 percent lower than men’s. Māori and Pacific women earn significantly less on average than other women.

Women have much lower lifetime earnings than men, and the pay gap between women and men is ‘stuck’ at around 12 percent
Lifetime earnings are a critical factor impacting on women’s economic independence. The average weekly income from all sources for women in 2007 was $510, compared with $832 for men. This reflects the combined impact of women being less likely to be in paid work, working fewer hours, and earning less per hour.

Women’s median hourly earnings were 12.1 percent lower than men’s in 2007³ – men earned $19.10 compared to $16.78 for women. The gap is even bigger for Pacific women (21.4 percent) and greater again for Māori women (22.5 percent). The pay gap has been slowly closing, but has plateaued over the past seven years at around 12 percent.

Women remain scarce in leadership positions
Women now make up 42 percent of members of state sector boards and committees – in part because of the government’s will to make a difference. We help by putting forward suitable women nominees. Progress is slower in the private sector, however, where women hold 7 percent of board directorships of the Top 100 companies listed on the NZX. Women make up 24 percent of judges and 17 percent of university professors.⁴  

Women still do the majority of unpaid work, while doing more paid work
Almost 70 percent of women’s work is unpaid, compared with 40 percent of men’s work.⁵ The longer total hours now worked in households are due primarily to women’s increased employment rates, particularly amongst mothers of young children.⁶

Although 94 percent of men and women agree that housework and childcare should be equally shared when both partners are in full time work, this does not necessarily mean parents do it in practice. Only 32 percent of parents in households where both parents have equally demanding jobs also equally share housework. A higher proportion (53 percent) believe they equally share childcare responsibilities.⁷  

Balancing paid and unpaid work is therefore a key challenge for women
For women, the ability to balance paid work with other responsibilities is critical to having genuine choices about economic participation.

Some families are not finding the balance they would like. Under half of households with one partner in paid work prefer both partners to be in paid work. Around one-third of households where both partners are in paid work prefer one partner not to be in paid work.

The availability of high quality childcare and flexible work has a big influence on parents’ choices around paid work. In 2004, lack of access to early childhood education affected the ability of 22 percent of adults to participate in paid work.⁸

Women live longer than men on average, but Māori women have poorer health outcomes
Although women continue to live longer than men, there are differences across ethnic and socio-economic groups. There are also gender and ethnicity differences in illness and lifestyle factors that affect morbidity and mortality.

There are marked ethnic differences in life expectancy. In 2000 2002, female life expectancy at birth was 81.9 years for non Māori and 73.2 years for Māori. This compares with male life expectancy at birth of 77.2 years for non Māori and 69.0 years for Māori.⁹ Māori women have higher rates of cancer than others and are more likely to smoke.

In 2003, 21 percent of adults in New Zealand aged 15 and over were obese. Pacific women (48 percent) and Māori women (28 percent) are more likely than European/Other women (20 percent) to be classified as obese.¹⁰

Sexual health status of young women are a concern
The rate of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) among young people appears to be increasing, and Māori and Pacific youth are particularly at risk.¹¹ Untreated STIs can result in infertility and ectopic pregnancy.¹² Women are more likely than men to experience asymptomatic infections,¹³ decreasing the likelihood of early treatment.

New Zealand has one of the highest fertility rates (births) for women under the age of 20 among comparable OECD countries. In 2006 the fertility rate was 28.4 per 1,000 women aged 15 to 19.¹⁴ The fertility rate for young women aged 15 to 19 in the most economically deprived areas is almost ten times higher than for young women in the most affluent areas.¹⁵ From 2000 to 2002, Māori teenagers had the highest fertility rate at 70 per 1,000. Pacific teenagers’ fertility rate (48 per 1,000), although lower than that for Māori, was over twice the European rate (22 per 1,000).¹⁶  

Levels of violence – domestic and sexual – against women are intolerable
Domestic violence and sexual violence continue to affect a significant proportion of New Zealand women and their children. Such violence has high personal costs for women and children, and has substantial direct and indirect social and economic costs for society as a whole. It is estimated that sexual violence alone costs the New Zealand economy $1.2 billion each year.¹⁷

Domestic violence and sexual violence affect women’s mental and physical health, economic status, social participation and general well being. The effects of domestic and sexual violence may persist long after the abuse has stopped. Witnessing domestic or sexual violence also impacts on inter-generational outcomes.

The lifetime prevalence of violence by heterosexual partners is higher for women (26 percent) than for men (18 percent).¹⁸ This is very much higher for Māori women (49 percent) than for New Zealand European women (26 percent) and Pacific women (23 percent).¹⁹

According to Police, 85 percent of reported family violence incidents involved women as victims.²⁰ During the period 2000 to 2004 (inclusive), 94 percent of family violence related murders of adults were committed by males. Forty-five women were murdered by their male partner or ex-partner and three men were murdered by their female partner or ex-partner.²¹

One in five women has experienced sexual interference or assault at some time in their lives; the figure for men is one in twenty.²² Twenty-six percent of young women (17-24 years olds) and 23 percent of Māori women report that they have experienced sexual interference or assault at some time in their lives.²³ Of the most recent incidents of sexual interference or assault described by victims, 75 percent were committed by people known to the victim.²⁴

Section 2. The government has a vital role to contribute to improving outcomes for women

While New Zealand has a comprehensive legal and policy framework to provide universal protection for New Zealand women from all forms of discrimination, the previous section shows that de facto discrimination persists. The government has a role to play as leader, influencer, connector, and ultimately the law-maker, to assist women to enjoy their human rights.

Some would say that women can do it themselves, but these problems are enduring. They need focused attention to identify the causes and find sustainable ways to overcome them.

We operate across the three themes of the government’s vision for transforming New Zealand – economic transformation, families young and old, and our identity as a nation – as well as the overriding theme of sustainability.

The Government has set out its goals for women in the whole-of-government Action Plan for New Zealand Women. A copy is attached.

The Action Plan was developed by New Zealand women for New Zealand women. It was prepared by MWA, approved by Cabinet and launched in March 2004. It is a five-year plan.

The priority outcomes in the Action Plan are: economic sustainability: women having enough income to meet their needs and those of their families work-life balance: ensuring women and their families have real choices about balancing paid work, family and other responsibilities well-being: which includes safety, health and social issues.

Other government agencies lead most of the project areas in the Action Plan. For example:

• the Department of Labour leads work on pay and employment equity, work-life balance, and parental leave
• the Ministry of Health leads most of the work on women’s health issues including smoking, obesity, and mental health
• the Ministry of Social Development leads work on income support, childcare assistance, out of school services, and family violence.

Within the Action Plan, MWA has lead responsibility for some pieces of work, and monitors overall progress on outcomes.

Section 3. MWA leads and co-ordinates government effort to improve the circumstances of New Zealand women

We lead and co-ordinate efforts on the Action Plan, which is overseen by a Chief Executive Steering Group convened by our Chief Executive.

We monitor progress against the Action Plan to ensure that momentum is maintained, opportunities to capitalise on progress are taken, and that areas for improvement receive greater attention. Your predecessor reported to Cabinet on progress on the implementation of the Action Plan in June 2007. Cabinet invited the Minister to report back to Cabinet by the end of 2009 on further progress. Cabinet’s overarching responsibility for the Action Plan provides a powerful message about the importance of women’s issues, and an incentive for action.

We are active in contributing to the outcomes of the Action Plan. This is primarily done by providing high-quality policy advice to the government on women’s issues, nominating suitable women for government appointments to state sector boards and committees, and managing New Zealand’s international obligations on the status of women.

We are the smallest government department but our impact is greater than our size might imply. We stay focused on where we can direct our efforts most effectively, and leverage off others. Our smallness has positives: it allows us to be agile; allows us to take opportunities as they arise; and enables us to be proactive. As a population agency we take a helicopter view of policy, we add value by seeing or making the connections between pieces of work, and we are able to be a leader in whole-of-government thinking.

As a small agency with a wide range of issues to cover, we must constantly and rigorously prioritise our work to be most effective. We risk failing to improve outcomes for women if we spread ourselves too thinly.

Our particular approach to being a population agency is to focus on where we can make the biggest impact on outcomes for women. We look for where there are gaps in other agencies’ work, or opportunities to build on momentum. We bring a gender analysis framework. We look at sub-populations of women.

To decide on our focus, we look at the following factors:

• alignment with current government goals
• the proportion of women significantly affected
• impacts on vulnerable or marginalised women
• the degree of progress being achieved without our efforts, for example by other agencies
• likely responsiveness of outcomes to possible policy interventions.

The following chart demonstrates the way we think about prioritising our work.

PRIORITISATION FRAMEWORK


We have excellent relationships with a diverse range of NGOs, community groups, and individuals that add considerable value, and a point of difference, to our work. These relationships improve our reach and build on the quality of our policy advice. Our networks enable us to be an authentic and unique voice in the public sector. We think about our relationships in a purposeful way and focus on relationships that are mutually beneficial.

Recent Ministers of Women’s Affairs have recognised three women’s groups as their social partners: the Māori Women’s Welfare League (MWWL); the National Council of Women of New Zealand (NCW); and PACIFICA. The nature of this social partnership is one that respects common goals but different roles. The distinctive features largely focus on a more formal and regular level of contact in communication and ministerial and Ministry engagement. The former Minister agreed to give notice of any public announcements. If you would like to continue this commitment, we will liaise with your ministerial office, particularly the Press Secretary, to support you to meet these expectations.

We can support you to establish and nourish a range of networks.

There are also many particularly key agencies with which we liaise, undertake collaborative work, and gain and share information. For example: the National Advisory Council on the Employment of Women (NACEW); the Human Rights Commission; the Family Planning Association; the Retirement Commission; the Families Commission; and the Māori Women’s Development Inc.

Some of our most important relationships are in the state sector. It is with these departments where our reputation and quality of advice is essential for our effectiveness. This is because we rely on other agencies delivering projects that improve outcomes for women. Key relationships are with Justice, Police, Corrections, Foreign Affairs and Trade, Social Development, Labour, Treasury, Prime Minister and Cabinet, Health, and Economic Development.

Key Ministers with whom you may have the most important involvement to improve outcomes for women are the Ministers of or for Finance, Social Development and Employment, Labour, Justice, Police, Health, and Economic Development.

We do not advocate on women’s issues because we have found it is not an effective way to do our work nor is it our role as a policy agency. Instead, we make sure we bring evidence and solid analysis, as well as expertise on women’s issues, which we have found gains us greater influence.

We are stretching our current budget a long way. The Ministry is largely a policy agency and has no contracts for service provision. We are therefore also usually unable to fund NGO capability, sponsorship, or major research from within our budget. Last year we were successful in obtaining two years’ funding from the Cross Departmental Research Pool for research on adult victims of sexual violence.

We have limited resources to apply to a range of policy areas that we would like to develop. Our capability is also being eroded by general cost increases. We meet this challenge by continually reprioritising our work programme and examining our efficiency. New projects cannot start unless other work is deferred or discontinued.

Section 4. We have a busy current work programme

This section outlines our current work priorities and offers a platform for further discussion with you around our work priorities. It is set out by our three work streams:

• Policy
• Nominations
• International

We continually refresh our work programme within the framework of the Action Plan to make sure it remains effective, and welcome the opportunity to discuss it with you.

4.1  Our policy work

Our policy work programme includes a range of areas where we lead, contribute, influence, or monitor work. Major policy projects that we are currently working on are briefly outlined below. You will receive detailed briefings about these projects and our wider work programme in the coming weeks and months.

Economic sustainability

We are focusing on occupational segregation as it is a major contributor to the gender pay gap and is not a focus for other agencies. There are three strands to the occupational segregation work:

• assessing whether gender-based occupational segregation impacts on wider economic performance. We have received funding from the (Australian) Commonwealth, State, Territories and New Zealand Ministers’ Conference (MINCO) on the Status of Women to contract this work.
• reducing the extent to which gender stereotypes and gaps in information limit women’s career choices. We have contracted the New Zealand Council of Educational Research to carry out substantive research on young people’s career choices, due in March 2008.
• improving the participation of women in modern apprenticeships and industry training. A Tertiary Education Commission report to joint Ministers on their progress in increasing the participation of under-represented groups is due by the end of this year. MWA is also reporting to joint Ministers on how to improve women’s participation in trade occupations by May 2008.

Women in enterprise is another focus area. We will shortly publish a joint report with the Ministry of Economic Development on women in enterprise to gain a better understanding of women’s experiences in business, including what is common with men’s experiences and what is unique. We want to build on success factors and remove barriers to women’s entrepreneurship and to find out why their businesses tend to start small and not grow.
 

Work-life balance

Focus areas in work-life balance include:

Improving the accessibility, quality and affordability of out of school services, which involves working with other agencies to advance the recently announced five-year action plan. We have been careful to make sure that the views of parents and their children are considered in the development of the action plan. This forms our major contribution towards the Choices for Living, Caring and Working project being led by the Department of Labour.

Working in collaboration with Te Puni Kōkiri on the ‘Whānau Leadership Project’, aimed at identifying accelerants of whānau leadership and examining how whānau can leverage off those accelerants. It will also identify critical success factors for Māori women in leadership and decision making roles.

Well-being

Our attention on health issues is highly focused.

We are assisting the Ministry of Health to identify measures to reduce sexually transmitted infections and unplanned teenage pregnancies.  This sentence is withheld under sections 9(2)(f)(iv) and 9(2)(g)(i) of the Official Information Act 1982. In addition a review of sexuality education delivered in schools, which we co commissioned, was recently released. The review aimed to improve the ability of young people to keep themselves safe, in the context of healthy relationships. We will monitor a report back to Ministers by the Ministries of Education and Health on progress in responding to the report’s recommendations to these agencies by June 2008.

Our domestic violence work has several work streams:

• the Taskforce for Action on Violence within Families (TAVF): MWA takes a leadership role. You are a member of the Family Violence Ministerial Team and the MWA Chief Executive is the Deputy Chair of the Taskforce.
• a project on the feasibility of court advocates: in consultation with the Ministry of Justice, as part of the TAVF programme of action.
• our contribution to a review of the Domestic Violence Act 1995; being led by the Ministry of Justice.

Our sexual violence work has two major components:

• MWA takes a leadership role in the Taskforce for Action on Sexual Violence (TASV), aimed at reducing the incidence and impact of sexual violence and ensuring that offenders are brought to account. You are a member of the Sexual Violence Ministerial Team and MWA’s Chief Executive is the Deputy Chair of the TASV. The next biannual Ministerial Group meeting will take place in February/March 2008. The Taskforce is finalising its work programme, and we are likely to lead and be involved in a number of workstreams.
• The Sexual Violence Research Unit has responsibility for managing a two-year research project to assess the differences between rates of reported sexual violence offences and convictions, and to assess the adequacy of support services for victims. The Unit was established in MWA using an additional $800,000 funding from the Cross Departmental Research Pool, with contributions from the Ministries of Justice and Health, ACC, Police and, of course, ourselves.

On women with disabilities MWA is leading a report-back to you and the Minister for Disability Issues on ways that the government may be able to better support the economic and social participation of women with disabilities. This report back is due early in 2008.

4.2  Our Nominations Service

One of the government’s strategic goals is that women are participating fully as leaders and decision makers in both the public and private sectors. The Nominations Service is a tool to help achieve this goal.

The Nominations Service acts as a dynamic recruitment agency for women candidates so that suitably qualified women are in the selection pools for appointment to vacancies on state sector boards and committees.

The government objective is for around 50 percent women’s representation on government boards and committees by 2010.

Ministers ultimately decide who to appoint, after receiving a list of candidates from the administering agency. Our Nominations Service provides names and details of suitable women candidates.

We are using four levers.

• We maintain strong relationships with the government agencies responsible for state sector boards and committees.
• Along with robust statistical and tracking data, we have developed and implemented a whole-of-government gender stocktake that measures progress toward the 50 percent goal.
• We continue to widen and deepen our database pool of over 2,600 potential nominees and to target key skill/experience gaps.
• We have a communications strategy in place, which links us with government agencies, women on the database, and potential database candidates.

The public sector is slowly but steadily moving toward achieving its 50 percent target. The 2006 stocktake shows that women now represent 42 percent membership of state sector boards and committees.

We are also working to influence the private sector to boost their low representation of women. Women make up only 7.1 percent of board members in NZSX Top 100 listed companies. Last year we researched the barriers and constraints for governance appointments for women in the private sector. The strategies identified from that work are being progressively implemented. We will provide you with further details of our work in this sector in a more detailed briefing.

Nominations also provides nominees for the Queen’s Birthday and New Year Honours Lists.

You have one governance appointment responsibility. Jointly with the Minister of Labour, you appoint the public sector members of the Equal Employment Opportunities (EEO) Trust. The Department of Labour is the lead agency in this process.

4.3  Our international work

New Zealand is a signatory to all major international agreements relevant to the status of women. The Ministry is responsible for managing New Zealand’s international obligations on the status of women. We participate in key international forums arising from those agreements or that specifically address relevant issues. These include:

• United Nations Committee for the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW): we are following up New Zealand’s presentation of our four-yearly ‘report card’ on the status of women to the Committee in August 2007. New Zealand’s next report is due by 2010.
• Annual (Australian) Commonwealth, State, Territories and New Zealand Ministers’ Conference (MINCO) on the Status of Women: the forum usually meets around September.
• United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (CSW): which meets in New York each February. The priority theme for next year is ‘financing for gender equality’.
• MWA also convenes an international caucus of NGOs and individuals active in the international arena to share information and gain input to our international work.

There is a range of detail and process relating to our international commitments that we will need to brief you on. Follow up papers and meetings will be arranged.

Section 5. There are some things requiring your early engagement

There are several matters that will require your earliest attention and we will provide you with briefings to support your participation:

This paragraph is withheld under sections 9(2)(f)(iv) and 9(2)(g)(i) of the Official Information Act 1982.

• The Government Administration Select Committee will be reviewing MWA’s 2006/07 Annual Report soon. We do not know the date yet. You are not required to attend the Committee meeting. Responses to the Committee’s written questions are due on 16 November. On 7 November, we will provide you with our draft response for any comment you may wish to provide.
  

• The Family Violence Ministerial Team has a number of upcoming matters to consider:

• The Team is meeting on Thursday 8 November. We will provide a written briefing for this meeting and Shenagh Gleisner can provide an oral briefing prior to the meeting.

• This paragraph is withheld under sections 9(2)(f)(iv) and 9(2)(g)(i) of the Official Information Act 1982.

• This paragraph is withheld under sections 9(2)(f)(iv) and 9(2)(g)(i) of the Official Information Act 1982.

Other matters that are ‘on top’ are:

This paragraph is withheld under sections 9(2)(f)(iv) and 9(2)(g)(i) of the Official Information Act 1982.

• Over the next month, we will also want to engage with you on the strategic direction for Vote: Women’s Affairs and the Ministry. This is the first deliverable under significant changes planned for accountability documents (e.g. statements of intent and annual reports). We will brief you as soon as more details are provided by the Treasury. We will want to discuss with you how this flows through to the work programme, and solicit your priorities and focus.
  

• You may wish to meet early with the three social partners (NCW, MWWL and PACIFICA), if you wish to maintain the previous arrangement.
  

• You will receive the following regular briefings: reports noting the names of women being nominated for state sector board and committee vacancies; our fortnightly status report; and our schedule of papers going to Cabinet when MWA has been consulted.
  

• You will also receive draft responses to correspondence addressed to the Minister of Women’s Affairs, for your signature.
  

• Over the coming weeks and months we will brief you on the range of policy projects we are working on. This sentence is withheld under sections 9(2)(f)(iv) and 9(2)(g)(i) of the Official Information Act 1982.

This table is withheld under sections 9(2)(f)(iv) and 9(2)(g)(i) of the Official Information Act 1982.

 
We look forward to receiving feedback on your needs and priorities so that we can best support you in your role.

Section 6. We are in a strong position to support your leadership

Being small, we have a flat executive structure.

 



Members of the Executive Management Team with whom you will be in regular contact are:


     Shenagh Gleisner, Chief Executive

Shenagh became Chief Executive of the Ministry of Women’s Affairs in February 2004. She came to the job from the State Services Commission where she was acting Deputy Commissioner. Shenagh has held a number of senior management positions in the health sector and was Director at KPMG between 1996 and 2000.

Earlier she worked as a social worker and family therapist, and in management positions in hospitals and community service organisations in the United Kingdom.

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     Sarah Turner, Policy Manager

Sarah joined the Ministry of Women’s Affairs in October 2007 after 17 years at the Ministry of Health in a variety of roles, including ten years in management positions.

Sarah’s most recent roles at Health were on the Change Team, tasked with the restructuring of the Ministry, and managing the Office of the Director-General. Sarah’s previous experience also includes leadership and management in the areas of Child and Family Health Policy, and Primary Health Care.

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     Martin Sebire, Corporate Support Manager

Martin joined the Ministry in 2005 from a similar position at the Historic Places Trust.

Martin began his government career as a policy analyst with the housing corporation and then moved into a range of financial management positions in large government departments including Commerce, Inland Revenue and Conservation.

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     Sonya Rimene, Kaihautū

Sonya joined the Ministry in January 2003. She has previously had senior advisory roles in a number of other state sector organisations including the Department of Corrections, the Ministry of Education and the Department of Work and Income.

Sonya assists the Ministry to be responsive to Māori women and helps identify, establish, and maintain key relationships with iwi, Māori and Māori individuals to provide input into key policy areas. Sonya’s iwi affiliations are Rangitāne, Ngāti Kahungunu, Ngāi Tahu and Te Arawa.   

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You will also have regular contact with Joan Isaac who manages the nominations service, Rod Scotts who is our Senior Communications Advisor, Denise Lievore, who manages the sexual violence research project, and Andrea Evans, the Deputy Policy Manager. Senior policy analysts regularly join the senior team for meetings with Ministers when the policy work they are covering is being discussed.

We very much look forward to working with you to improve the lives of New Zealand women.

Attachments:

• Action Plan for New Zealand Women, 2004
• MWA Statement of Intent 2007-2010
• MWA Annual Report for the year ended 30 June 2007

Footnotes

1. Ministry of Education, (2006) School Leavers: 2006
2. Ministry of Education (2006) Tertiary Participation Rates
3. Statistics New Zealand (2007) New Zealand Income Survey (June 2007 quarter). Wellington, Statistics New Zealand. Median hourly earnings for those receiving income from wages and salaries.
4. Human Rights Commission (2006) New Zealand Census of Women’s Participation 2006
5. Statistics New Zealand (2001) Around the Clock: Findings from the New Zealand Time Use Survey 1998-1999. Wellington, Statistics New Zealand.
6. Callister, Paul (2004) The future of work within households: Understanding household-level changes in the distribution of hours of paid work. http://www.dol.govt.nz/publication-view.asp?ID-198
7. Ministry of Social Development (2006) Work, Family and Parenting Study: Research Findings. Wellington, Ministry of Social Development.
8. Ministry of Social Development (2004), New Zealand Living Standards 2004.
9. Ministry of Social Development (2007) The Social Report 2007. Wellington, Ministry of Social Development.
10. Ministry of Social Development (2007) The Social Report 2007. Wellington, Ministry of Social Development.
11. STI Surveillance Team, Population and Environmental Health Group, Institute of Environmental Science and Research Limited, for the Ministry of Health (April 2006) Sexually Transmitted Infections in New Zealand Annual Surveillance Report 2005, Wellington.
12. Statistics New Zealand (2003) Teenage Fertility in New Zealand http://www.stats.govt.nz/products-and-services/Articles/teen-Sep03.htm
13. Heymann, DL (ed) (2004) Control of Communicable Diseases Manual (18th ed). Washington DC, American Public Health Association.
14. Statistics New Zealand, Births and Deaths, December 2006 quarter, 2007.
15. Craig ED. The Health Status of Children in the (Sample) DHB. 2006 NZ Child and Youth Epidemiology Service. Auckland p 153.
16. Statistics New Zealand, http://www.stats.govt.nz/ pp 3-4.
17. Roper, Tim & Thompson, Andrew (2006) ‘Estimating the costs of crime in New Zealand in 2003/04’, New Zealand Treasury Working Paper 06/04. Wellington, New Zealand Treasury.
18. Morris, Alison & Reilly, James (2003), New Zealand National Survey of Crime Victims 2001. Wellington Ministry of Justice.
19. Ibid.
20. New Zealand Police (2005), submission made to the New Zealand Parliamentarians’ Group on Population and Development for the report Creating a Culture of Non-Violence
21. Ministry of Social Development (2006), Taskforce for Action on Violence within Families: the first report. Wellington, Ministry of Social Development.
22. Morris, Alison & Reilly, James (2003), New Zealand National Survey of Crime Victims 2001. Wellington: Ministry of Justice.
23. Ibid.
24. Ibid.