women’s affairs Archive

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  International (Working) Women’s Day - by Catherine Delahunty

  
  
  
  Today is the day we salute the efforts of women everywhere for equity and justice for our gender and as workers. This year, our hearts and thoughts start and finish with women in Christchurch. I spent the weekend door-knocking on the streets of Aranui, Wainoni and New Brighton which are all low-income areas hit hard [...] read more
  March 8, 2011 2:56 pm - 7 Comments
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  Hot Ukrainian Husbands from Chernobyl? - by Catherine Delahunty

  
  
  
  Last week the media reported a “Radio Rock” promotion which involved winning “hot chicks” as wives. As Sue Bradford commented in the media, this is not an isolated incident. As a compassionate and forgiving feminist I thought I would run a parallel competition for all those women out there seeking a “hot husband” . We [...] read more
  February 12, 2011 2:56 pm - 30 Comments
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  Just when you thought girls could do anything - by Catherine Delahunty

  
  
  
  The front page of today’s Dominion Post carries the story of a Newlands college pupil who was told she “looked like a slut” for wearing her school skirt short by her school dean. The verbal apology that was given notwithstanding, this incident is very disturbing. As a former girl who formerly wore very short skirts [...] read more
  November 11, 2010 3:45 pm - 122 Comments
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  No Minister, it’s not getting better for women - by Catherine Delahunty

  
  
  
  On Tuesday I asked the Minister of Women’s Affairs whether she was happy with the progress towards her goals of getting more women into leadership positions and closing the gender pay gap. She had to dance around a bit because no one could be happy with the evidence as presented in the 2010 Census of [...] read more
  November 11, 2010 2:09 pm - 4 Comments
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  Equity for women stuck in reverse - by Catherine Delahunty

  
  
  
  Today the Biennial New Zealand Census on Women’s Participation in 2010 was released. It shows that women’s participation in governance, professional and public life is backsliding, and that we’re losing ground on the gender pay gap, with 24 public service departments having gender pay gaps greater than the total labour force. Depending on how you [...] read more
  November 8, 2010 5:53 pm - 3 Comments
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  Wake-up call on women’s rights - by Catherine Delahunty

  
  
  
  Sunday was Suffrage Day, a day on which we are urged to celebrate the struggle for Votes for Women. Determined to celebrate, I attended several suffrage events, but ended up somewhat sobered by the work we still need to do to achieve gender equity in the 21st Century. The gender pay gap is 12 percent [...] read more
  September 21, 2010 1:48 pm - 17 Comments
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  “Floodgates” of Police rape? - by Catherine Delahunty

  
  
  
  This morning the Attorney General announced there will be no compensation for 8 women who were part of an inquiry into police rape cases. The women also said there was no apology. Instead they were part of a confidential forum where “telling their story” was facilitated and compensation was recommended. The Crown however says no [...] read more
  August 11, 2010 4:09 pm - 71 Comments
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  How many men is one woman worth again Pansy? - by Catherine Delahunty

  
  
  
  Late last week Women’s Affairs Minister Pansy Wong told the Institute of Directors that New Zealand’s “dismal record” of just 8.6 percent women directors in our top 100 listed companies needs to be changed. She wants to be a “catalyst” for that change. I couldn’t agree more, but she won’t get very far convincing companies [...] read more
  April 19, 2010 5:06 pm - 29 Comments
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  Knights in Shining Armour will champion our rights - by Catherine Delahunty

  
  
  
  The Ministry of Women’s Affairs seems to be under orders to engage more effectively with men. This was revealed after the Greens submitted a written question to the Minister, Pansy Wong, asking who was invited to the pre Job Summit meeting organised by the Ministry. The answer was basically “we won’t tell you” but a [...] read more
  May 12, 2009 3:02 pm - 24 Comments
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  Will the ladies please retire to the drawing room? - by frog

  
  
  
  It seems that Catherine Delahunty may have hit a sore point within the National Party caucus, as Women’s Affairs Minister Pansy Wong has finally responded to our calls for proper input from women at the jobs summit. Who would have thought they had a spokesperson for Women’s Affairs, given the appalling state of their policy [...] read more
  February 25, 2009 4:01 pm - 25 Comments
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  Why the National Party killed the pay-equity inquiries - by frog

  
  
  
  The Herald online highlighted the issue; The Government has axed two investigations aimed at improving the pay of women as it tries to save money by controlling public sector salaries. State Services Minister Tony Ryall said the investigations would “generate an additional form of remuneration pressure that is unaffordable in the current economic and fiscal [...] read more
  February 21, 2009 10:11 am - 70 Comments