The gender split in some industries has remained unchanged since 2006. Photo / Greg Bowker
The gender split in some industries has remained unchanged since 2006. Photo / Greg Bowker
Only 10 per cent of Kiwis are part of a workforce that is gender-balanced, a Herald analysis of Census data shows.
The Herald has used census data from 2006, 2013 and 2018 to understand how the gender makeup of the country’s workforce has changed over time.
It shows over the past 12 years there have been small or no improvements in gender diversity across a range of professions. Many traditionally gendered roles, such as ICT, farming, care work and education, were still dominated by that same gender in 2018.
Stats NZ releases Census data that groups the entire workforce into 43 professional categories - such as “educational professionals”.
These are broad groupings and this analysis will not capture changes within specific industries.
For example, the analysis is at the level of “health professionals”, rather than nurses.
Of the 43 categories, there were only four where approximately half of the workers were female.
Nine professions, accounting for 24 per cent of the total workforce, are becoming less gender diverse. These include education, office managers and programme administrators, ICT, farming and food trade workers.
Meanwhile, the gender balance of 16 professions, 33 per cent of the total workforce, has remained largely unchanged.
Over the past decade, some workforces have converged – or moved closer to having an equal gender split.
Fourteen professions, making up 33 per cent of the total workforce, are tracking towards a 50 per cent female workforce. However, some of these professions with increasing diversity still remain dominated by a single worker.
In 2006, only 28 per cent of the people working as chief executives, general managers and legislators in New Zealand were female. This had improved slightly by 2018 to 31 per cent.
Change has been slow in professions like caring and aide work. In 2006, the profession was made up of almost entirely women (92 per cent). By 2018, this had dropped to 89 per cent.
Meanwhile, the number of women working as education professionals has increased from 74 per cent in 2006 to 77 per cent in 2018.
Little change has happened in the cleaning and laundry profession, with the percentage of women making up the workforce remaining around 68 per cent from 2006-2018.
Despite increasing awareness of the importance of gender-diverse workforces, some professions have tracked backwards. The percentage of women working as ICT professionals dropped from around 24 per cent in 2013 to 21 per cent in 2018.
Director of AUT’s NZ Work Research Institute Professor Gail Pacheco said she would have liked to see increased gender diversity in a range of New Zealand industries in 2018.
“Gender and ethnic diversity is important - particularly in senior roles within industries and sectors.
“When a greater variety of occupations are more accessible to women and non-Europeans, this improves the allocation of talent, resulting in improvements in productivity.”
Pacheco said potential plans for pay equity settlements for teachers and health workforce in the future might aid the gender diversity in these domains and help reduce the gender pay gap.
In 2022, the gender pay gap, the difference between men and women’s median hourly pay, was 9.2 per cent.
While Census provides detailed information on the types of professions women work in, New Zealand is missing a key piece of information that similar jurisdictions have, which is mandatory pay gap reporting by organisation.
Professor Gail Pacheco, Director, AUT's NZ Work Research Institute. Photo / Supplied
MindTheGap co-founder Jo Cribb said the biggest generator of pay gaps was the behaviour of individual managers in organisations.
“It’s about the behaviour that happens in organisations. It isn’t about women having less experience.”
Many organisations already disclose their gender pay gap. Making it a requirement for all organisations forces those companies to address it, she said.
“Nobody wants to show a bad pay gap. The actual impact [for women] is probably more money in your pocket because organisations work hard to reduce it.
“In order to manage your gender pay gap, you are going to need more women in positions that are paid more. You will need more women leaders, you need more women promoted and invested in.”
The gender pay gap as of 2022 in New Zealand was 9.2 per cent. Photo / Dean Purcell.
Although looking even further back shows significant changes in the gender balance of the workforce. In 1891, the Census recorded 19 per cent of women over 15 in paid work. However, this data did not include Māori.
By 2013, the percentage of women in paid work had risen to 48 per cent.
