"We want to do a fantastic job and just being good enough is not enough - we need to know we will make a difference and excel in the job."
Ms Lawton, who has held several senior leadership roles paying more than $100,000, said the roles were often stressful.
"From my experience, it is stressful in these roles. However, now there are more women in these roles so there are stronger support networks.
"In my early days, not so much - it was mainly dominated by men."
She said women were less inclined to apply for roles they did not feel entirely qualified for.
"We as women analyse our skills and experience against the criteria of a job - if our skills and experience do not align close to 100 per cent we don't apply."
There is some good news from the statistics: job listings went up by 22 per cent in Rotorua in the second quarter of the year, from April to June.
Ashlyn Sweeney of Personnel Resources in Rotorua said there had been an increase in the number of certain specialised roles available.
The gender split was "pretty even with the varied roles that we have", she said.
The average advertised salary is up 4 per cent in Rotorua, according to the Trade Me data, to $55,685.
"It's kind of been a candidates' market ... sometimes they will pay a little bit more," Ms Sweeney said.
But Junita Maassen from Talent ID said she had noticed an increase in applicants and fewer vacancies with the recent population increase in Rotorua.
"It is an employers' market at the moment, lots of strong quality candidates to choose from."
One of the issues with the gender split was that higher-paid roles were often in male-dominated industries, Trade Me head of jobs Jeremy Wade said.
"IT has dominated our highest-paid roles for many years and we think New Zealand women should be aiming for a slice of that pie."
Four of the highest-paid jobs advertised on Trade Me over the last quarter were in IT.
The fifth highest was in construction and roading. Just 28 per cent of applicants in the construction and roading industry were female.
"There are some signs that things might be changing in IT with 18-25-year-old women making up 27 per cent of applications, well up on the overall proportion of 20 per cent, Mr Wade said.
"In engineering it's a little more disheartening with 18-25-year-old women comprising just 11 per cent of applications and well down on the overall proportion of 16 per cent."
Catherine Brown of Talent ID said there were more applications from men for the two well-paid chief executive roles the organisation recruited for recently.
Two-thirds of applicants for a chief executive role Talent ID recently advertised in the health sector were male, she said.
A similar role in property had an even higher proportion of male applicants - 86.5 per cent.
The lowest-paid jobs had the highest proportion of female applicants, according to the Trade Me data - 57 per cent of those applying for jobs paying less than $40,000 a year were women.
Several industry sectors were dominated by women applicants - education and office/administration in particular.
Mr Wade said there were differences in the way men and women applied for jobs.
"Our analysis has indicated women tend to view more listings when they are searching for a new job, but apply less.
"Women do 56 per cent of all searches but only submit 48 per cent of applications."
The Trade Me figures for the gender split hardly changed over the past three years.
There was research to support the view that women would not apply for jobs if they did not meet all criteria listed in the advertisement, Mr Wade said.
"Studies around this have shown that women tend to look at a job ad and have to tick off all 10 requirements, but men will be happy to tick off six out of 10."
Although it may not be a conscious bias on the part of employers, wording of advertisements affected applications, he added.
"The wording in job ads can actually have an impact on women applying for jobs."
The words "rock stars" are among those known to put women off.
Trade Me analysed 72,000 job vacancies across New Zealand from April to June this year.
