Overview

The Action Plan for New Zealand Women is an integrated government approach to improving the circumstances of New Zealand women. Actions combine to improve outcomes for women and their families/whānau in the workplace, the home, the community, and as members of New Zealand society.

TO IMPROVE THE ECONOMIC INDEPENDENCE OF WOMEN, THE GOVERNMENT WILL:

• Increase women’s earnings through pay and employment equity initiatives, initially in the state sector
• Improve and increase women’s participation in employment through extensions to paid parental leave and improved access to early childhood education and care
• Implement strategies that recognise the increasing importance of women in New Zealand’s paid workforce, particularly Māori women, Pacific women, young women, older women and women with disabilities
• Provide additional support for low-income families with children through major reforms to social assistance
• Increase women’s ability to provide for the future by improving access to financial planning advice, and increasing women’s uptake of retirement savings schemes
• Reduce the impact of student loan debt for women
• Improve the success of women, particularly Māori women, in enterprise by encouraging more women to access development funding, and by identifying new opportunities to grow businesses
• Achieve greater gender balance in decision-making in the economic sector by increasing the number of women participating in leadership roles.

TO ACHIEVE GREATER WORK-LIFE BALANCE FOR FAMILIES, THE GOVERNMENT WILL:

• Identify innovative ways to encourage a balance between paid work and life outside work
• Give recognition to the importance and value of unpaid work
• Improve access to quality child- care to help women enter or re-enter the paid workforce and retain workplace attachment
• Provide and extend paid parental leave to parents seeking to retain workplace attachment while caring for new babies.
  

TO IMPROVE THE QUALITY OF LIFE OF NEW ZEALAND WOMEN, THE GOVERNMENT WILL:

• Improve the co-ordination and provision of government services, particularly in rural areas, including access to health and justice services
• Reduce the incidence and impact of violence on women and children through the Prevention of Family Violence Strategy (Te Rito) and the Crime Reduction Strategy
• Support the provision of services by Māori, for Māori
• Improve women’s health, particularly sexual and reproductive health and mental health
• Implement targeted initiatives to prevent and reduce obesity, smoking and unplanned pregnancy
• Achieve greater gender balance in decision-making in the health and social sectors by increasing the number of women participating in leadership roles.

The Plan targets improvements for women in identified priority areas. These areas reflect women’s views on what is important, with a focus on the economic and social aspects, where indicators demonstrate poorer results for women, and where government can act to achieve improvements. Completion of actions, milestones and objectives within the Plan advances the achievement of desired outcomes for women. Implementation of the Plan works towards the realisation of a future vision for women, and an improved economic and social outlook for New Zealand.

[ Previous | Contents | Next ]