Towards Equal Opportunity Employment For Women in New Zealand

Women make up 50% of the total population in New Zealand and their numbers in the workforce are rapidly increasing During the past forty years there has been a marked change in the composition of the labour force. The female component has increased from 20% in 1926 to 32.5% 1n 1976. As the number of females in employment has increased, so has the composition of women engaged in employment also changed sigmficantly. Married women are now entering the workforce in increasing numbers so that by 1976 55.8% of the female labour force was made up of marned women. Desp1te their vastly increased numbers, however, women do not have access to every kind of employment but generally tend to work in a range of jobs that have largely been theirs traditionally. A far wider range of job opportunities is available to men only, both by convention and by the operat1on of legal restraints, and even in fields where women outnumber men, female workers almost invariably hold positions lower in status and remuneration. If women leave the workforce to have children and care for them then they may lose not only their wages but also the1r service bonuses and incidental benefits such as superannuation and accident compensation. Married women returning to the workforce are also forced to look for other jobs, smce very rarely is their old job held open until their return. If women remain at work while their children are young they are often faced with an appalling lack of good child-care and after school facilities coupled with the reluctance on the part of many employers to concede variations in workmg hours