Female representation on Public Sector boards and committees is the highest it’s ever been, with wāhine now making up 53.1% of public board and committee members, Minister for Women, Jan Tinetti, announced today.
The Manatū Wāhine Ministry for Women’s 2022 stocktake of Public Sector boards and committees has shown that, for the third year in a row, there is equal gender representation on public boards.
The stocktake also highlights an increase of women in new board member roles, at 55.3% up from 54.6% in 2021, and 41.9% of board chair roles are held by women, the Minister said today.
“Ensuring women’s voices are around the board tables of our public organisations is crucial if we’re serious about driving meaningful progress for an inclusive New Zealand.”
“We want young wāhine to see what’s possible and follow the footsteps of those gone before them. We’ve smashed a sizeable hole in the glass ceiling, but the job is far from complete.
“While the latest data is trending in the right direction, there needs to be a real focus on increasing ethnic diversity across public boards and committees. The private sector also has some way to go in terms of equal representation for women,” Ms Tinetti said.
Māori and ethnic diversity has increased steadily since 2019 when data collection for ethnicities on boards began. Māori board members now hold 26.8% of board roles, Pacific board members 7.2%, and Asian board members 6.1%.
“Since we began tracking ethnic communities’ representation on public sector boards in 2019, we’ve seen representation increase by 64 per cent,” said Minister for Diversity, Inclusion and Ethnic Communities, Priyanca Radhakrishnan.
“We’re making good progress, and we still have so much more potential to unlock.
“New Zealand is one of the most diverse countries in the world and we need to celebrate that and maximise diversity to our collective advantage.
“We also have work underway to support disabled people to be better represented on public sector boards. It’s important that we continue making boards and committees more representative of New Zealand society,” she said.
