Indicators for Change 2009

This section presents a summary of the key indicators to give a snapshot of how women overall, and Māori and Pacific women, are faring.

The following table outlines how women and men compare on some key indicators.

Current level and trends

Women are more likely to be participating in tertiary education than men.

In 2008, women had higher participation rates than men in all qualification levels except for Level 4 certificates. Gender differences in participation rates were greatest for qualifications at bachelors level.

Despite falling participation rates in tertiary education over recent years, it should be noted that participation at bachelors level qualifications and above has remained relatively stable. In 2008, 5.8 percent of women and 3.9 percent of men were enrolled in a qualification at bachelors level and above.

Figure 13: Participation in tertiary education, by gender and qualification level (age-standardised), 2008

Ethnic differences

Māori women have the highest levels of participation in tertiary education of all gender and ethnic groupings.

The proportion of people participating in tertiary education in 2008 varied significantly by ethnicity. Māori women had the highest levels of participation overall (19.8 percent), followed by Pacific women (13.7 percent). This compares with a participation rate of 12.2 percent for European women, and 13.1 percent for Asian women.

Women’s participation levels also vary by the level of qualification they are undertaking. Māori women in particular have very high levels of participation in sub-degree level qualifications, while women of Asian ethnicity have very high levels of participation in bachelors and post-graduate level qualifications.

Figure 15: Women’s participation in tertiary education, by ethnicity and qualification level (age-standardised), 2008

Age differences

Women are more likely to be participating in tertiary education than men in all age groups over 18 years of age.

Participation in tertiary education varies by age, and the trends are similar for both men and women. Women are more likely than men to be participating in tertiary education at all age groups above 18 years. For both women and men, participation in tertiary education is greatest in the 18 to 19 year age group (49.4 percent and 42.1 percent respectively), followed by the 20 to 24 year age group (35.1 percent for women and 30.7 percent for men).

Women make up only 9.4 percent of Modern Apprentices.

In 2008, there were 1,140 women participating in a Modern Apprenticeship, accounting for 9.4 percent of Modern Apprentices. Between 2007 and 2008, there was an 8.5 percent increase in the number of women participating in a Modern Apprenticeship, compared with a 12.4 percent increase for men.

Figure 17: Women’s participation in Modern Apprenticeships, 2008

Māori women are more likely to be participating in a Modern Apprenticeship.

The ethnic composition of women participating in Modern Apprenticeships is not reflective of the total female population. In 2008, 68.9 percent of women in a Modern Apprenticeship identified with the European/Pākeha ethnic group, 24.0 percent identified with the Māori ethnic group, and 3.8 percent identified with the Pacific ethnic group.

In 2008, women accounted for 14.6 percent of Modern Apprentices in the Māori ethnic group, 10.8 percent in the Pacific ethnic group, and 8.0 percent in the European/Pākeha ethnic group.

Figure 18: Ethnic composition of Modern Apprentices, by gender, 2008

The age distribution of Modern Apprentices is slightly older for women than for men.

The Modern Apprenticeship initiative is targeted at people aged 16 to 21 years. In 2008, 73.0 percent of female Modern Apprentices and 78.7 percent of male Modern Apprentices fitted within this age band.

Figure 19: Age distribution of Modern Apprentices, by gender, 2008

Source: Ministry of Education

Women participating in a Modern Apprenticeship are slightly more likely to be older than men – with 11.0 percent of female Modern Apprentices aged 25 years and over, compared with 4.5 percent of male Modern Apprentices. While women account for only 9.4 percent of Modern Apprentices overall, they make up 20.0 percent of apprentices aged 25 years and over, and 27.4 percent of those aged 30 years and over.

Figure 20: Proportion of Modern Apprentices who are women in each age group, 2008

There is a clear difference in the type of ITO men and women choose to undertake their Modern Apprenticeship through.

In 2008, there were 25 Industry Training Organisations (ITOs) participating in the Modern Apprenticeship initiative. Of those, only three had more female Modern Apprentices than male: the New Zealand Association of Hairdressers Incorporated (93.3 percent female), the Public Sector Training Organisation (77.3 percent female), and Retail Training New Zealand Incorporated (53.2 percent female). Within 12 ITOs, women accounted for fewer than 5 percent of Modern Apprentices.

The most common ITOs for women and men to be undertaking their Modern Apprenticeship through is shown in the table below:

Current level and trends

Men continue to have higher median hourly earnings than women. The gender pay gap has remained relatively unchanged since 2001.

On average, men continue to earn more per hour than women. In 2008, women’s median hourly earnings were $17.44, compared with $20.00 for men. This equates to a gender pay gap of 12.8 percent of men’s pay rate. As both men’s and women’s median hourly earnings have been increasing by similar rates since 2001 (32.7 percent for women and 33.3 percent for men), there has been very little downward movement in the pay gap over this time. Between 2007 and 2008, the gender pay gap widened by 0.6 of a percentage point.

Māori and Pacific women have lower median hourly earnings than European women.

Median hourly earnings vary considerably according to ethnicity. In 2008, women in the European ethnic group earned more per hour ($18.22) than women in each of the Māori, Pacific, and Other ethnic groups ($15.00, $14.80, and $16.00 respectively). Across all ethnicities, men’s hourly earnings were greater than those of women. In 2008, the largest gender pay gap was within the Māori ethnic group at 15.4 percent. In comparison, the gender pay gaps for the European, Pacific, and Other ethnic groups were 13.8 percent, 7.9 percent, and 11.1 percent respectively.

Women in their early thirties earn more per hour than women in other age groups. Among men, those in their late forties earn the most per hour.

Men’s and women’s median hourly earnings vary by age. Between the ages of 35 and 64, there is a notable gender difference in median hourly earnings – with women earning much less than men. The time of life when this gap starts to occur corresponds with the age at which women are most likely to be raising children. Median hourly earnings peak for women at age 30 to 34 years, whereas men’s median hourly earnings continue to increase up until age 45 to 49 years. The biggest gender difference in median hourly earnings was in the 40 to 44 age group, where there was a gender pay gap of 22.9 percent.

In 2008, the median weekly income of women was 40.1 percent lower than that of men.

European men have significantly higher weekly incomes than men of other ethnicities. The weekly incomes of women, however, do not differ much for different ethnic groups.

Women’s median weekly income is around 40 percent lower than that of men between the ages of 30 and 65.

While women have high levels of representation in some areas, there is still a long way to go to achieve equal representation.

While the level of women’s political representation has been slowly improving over time, women remain under-represented in leadership positions.

Representation in Parliament is an indicator of women’s participation at the highest level. Women were first eligible to stand for election in 1919, and a woman first won a seat in 1933. Since that time, 106 women have held a seat in Parliament.

Forty-one of the 122 seats in Parliament (33.6 percent) were held by women as a result of the 2008 general election. Six of the 20 Cabinet Ministers are women (30.0 percent) and there are a further two female ministers outside of Cabinet.

The proportion of MPs that are women rose significantly following the adoption of a mixed member proportional (MMP) electoral system in 1996. Since the introduction of MMP, female representation has hovered around the 30 percent mark.

Women are more likely to be jobless than men.

Ethnic differences

Age differences

Joblessness varies considerably by age. The jobless rate for both men and women is significantly higher among 15- to 24-year-olds, and tends to decline for each consecutive age group.

In 2008, the jobless rate was identical for women and men in the 15 to 24 year age group (20 percent). The largest gender difference was in the 25 to 44 year age group with women and men experiencing jobless rates of 7.0 percent and 4.7 percent respectively. This corresponds with the period when child-rearing typically takes place.

Women and men are equally likely to be victims of crime in general; however women are more likely to be victims of partner offences and sexual offences.

In 2005, women and men had the same prevalence rates for victimisation overall (39 percent). There were, however, gender differences in rates of particular types of victimisations.

Women were more likely than men to be victims of sexual offences (4 percent versus 2 percent). There was no statistically significant difference in the prevalence of confrontational offences committed by partners between women and men (7 percent versus 6 percent). Women were just as likely as men to have been victims of confrontational offences committed by people well known to them (5 percent), but were less at risk of being victims of confrontational offences committed by other people (6 percent versus 9 percent).

Because of the low prevalence rates of victimisation, it is difficult to draw meaningful comparisons between women of different ethnic groups, particularly for sexual offences. However, the NZCASS findings note that Māori women have twice the risk of sexual victimisation compared to women overall.

In 2005, Māori women were significantly more at risk than European women of being a victim of all types of confrontational offences. This was particularly the case for confrontational offences committed by partners – 18 percent of Māori women were a victim of at least one confrontational offence committed by partners in 2005, compared with 6 percent of European women.

Women aged 15 to 24 years experience greater rates of victimisation than women in other age groups.

Women aged 15 to 24 years were more at risk than other women of being a victim of all types of confrontational offences. In 2005, 15 percent of women aged 15 to 24 years were a victim of at least one confrontational offence committed by partners, compared with 11 percent of women aged 25 to 39 years and 4 percent of women aged 40 to 59 years.

Women are more likely to be very worried about victimisation than men.

More women than men reported that crime had a high or moderate impact on their quality of life

In 2005, women were more likely than men to be worried about being a victim of a crime.

Women were significantly more likely than men to report being ‘very worried’ about being a victim of an assault by strangers (24 percent versus 13 percent), assault by people known to them (11 percent versus 6 percent), and sexual assault or rape (26 percent versus 10 percent).

In 2005, 8 percent of women and 6 percent of men reported that fear of crime had a high impact on their quality of life. A further 37 percent of women and 28 percent of men said that fear of crime had a moderate impact on their quality of life.

Ethnicity has a significant impact on the level of concern felt regarding victimisation.

Women aged 15 to 24 years were more worried than other age groups of being victimised.

Women continue to have a longer health expectancy than men, but the gap is closing.

Māori women’s health expectancy is six years less than non-Māori women’s, but the gap is closing.

There is a significant difference in health expectancy between Māori women and non-Māori women. In 2006, Māori women’s health expectancy was 64.2 years, compared with 70.4 years for non Māori women (a difference of 6.2 years). However, in recent years Māori women’s health expectancy has improved significantly – increasing by 5.2 years between 2001 and 2006, compared with an increase of 2.2 years for non-Māori women over the same period.

Within both Māori and non-Māori groups, women have a longer health expectancy than men. For Māori, the gender gap was 1.3 years (64.2 years for Māori women compared with 62.9 years for Māori men). For non-Māori, the gender gap was 1.6 years (70.4 years for non-Māori women, compared with 68.8 years for non-Māori men).

Women are more likely to report excellent or very good self-reported health.

European/Other women are most likely and Pacific women are least likely to report their health as excellent or very good.

Women in the European/Other ethnic group are more likely to report excellent or very good health than women in other ethnic groups. In 2006/07, 65.3 percent of women in the European/Other ethnic group said they had excellent or very good health, compared with 51.2 percent of Māori women, 49.7 percent of Pacific women, and 54.6 percent of Asian women.

While women overall are more likely than men to report their health as excellent or very good, the gender gap varies between ethnic groups. Women are more likely to rate their health as excellent or very good than men within all ethnic groups, except the Pacific ethnic group.

Women living in the least deprived neighbourhoods are more likely to rate their health as excellent or very good than women living in the most deprived neighbourhoods.

In 2006/07, more than two-thirds (72.1 percent) of women living in areas with the lowest levels of socio-economic deprivation rated their health as excellent or very good, compared with just over half (53.6 percent) of women living in areas with the highest levels of socio-economic deprivation.

Women are slightly more likely than men to report being satisfied or very satisfied with their work-life balance (77.2 percent and 74.6 percent respectively). However, women are just as likely as men to report being dissatisfied or very dissatisfied with their work-life balance (8.9 percent and 8.6 percent respectively).

There is very little variation in women’s satisfaction with work-life balance across ethnic groups. In 2008, women who identified as belonging only to the European ethnic group were slightly more likely to be satisfied or very satisfied with their work-life balance (77.8 percent) than women identifying as belonging to other ethnic groups. Women identifying with both European and Māori ethnicities were the least likely to be satisfied or very satisfied with their work-life balance (72.8 percent).

Across all ethnicities, women were more likely than men to report being satisfied or very satisfied with their work life balance, except for Pacific peoples, where men reported slightly higher levels of satisfaction with work-life balance.

Between the ages of 15 and 54, women’s satisfaction with work-life balance tends to decrease. In 2008, 79.9 percent of women aged between 15 to 24 years reported being satisfied or very satisfied with their work-life balance, compared with 73.6 percent of women aged between 45 and 54 years. Women aged 65 years and over were the most likely to report being satisfied or very satisfied with their work-life balance (94.3 percent).

Across all age groups, women are more likely than men to report being satisfied or very satisfied with their work-life balance. In 2008, this gender difference was most pronounced in the 35 to 44 year age group, where 75.7 percent of women and 71.4 percent of men reported being satisfied or very satisfied with their work-life balance (a difference of 4.3 percentage points).

In 1998/99, the average number of hours per day spent on paid and unpaid work combined was 7.0 hours for both men and women. However, there were significant differences in the kinds of work men and women did. On average, women spent 4.8 hours per day on unpaid work and 2.2 hours on paid work. Men spent 2.8 hours on unpaid work and 4.2 hours on paid work.

In 1998/99, there was very little difference in total work time between Māori women and non-Māori women (6.6 hours and 7.1 hours respectively). Māori women spent less time on paid work (1.8 hours) than non-Māori women (2.3 hours). Māori women and non-Māori women spent similar amounts of time on unpaid work (4.7 hours and 4.8 hours respectively), which was considerably greater than the amount of time both Māori and non-Māori men spent on unpaid work activities (2.8 hours).

There is very little gender difference in total work time within the different age groups.  Total work time was greatest for women and men aged 35 to 44 years – reaching 8.8 hours per day for women and 9.0 hours per day for men within this age group.

While total work time was less for women aged 65 years and over, this age group spent a similar amount of time on unpaid work than women aged 25 to 64 years (around 5 hours per day).

Figure 61: Total work time, by gender and age, 1998/99

Women and men employed full-time had the longest total work time (9.3 hours). Women who were employed part-time, unemployed, or not in the labour force spent more time working in total than men in these groups.

While men spent considerably less time on unpaid work if they were employed (either full-time or part-time), women employed part-time spent almost the same amount of time on unpaid work as women who were not in the labour force (just over 5 hours per day). The amount of time women spent on unpaid work reduced only once women were employed full-time.

Overall, ECE fees have reduced substantially since the introduction of 20 hours ECE for three- and four-year-olds in July 2007. Between December 2003 and December 2008, ECE fees decreased by 23.9 percent.

An increase in average hourly earnings means that, relative to earnings, ECE fees are even more affordable. Fees relative to average hourly earnings fell by 38.7 percent in the five years to December 2008.