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 by the earthquake.

About a third of the houses I visited were empty, but I spoke with a number of women who were staying on despite still having no electricity, no running water and no easily accessible toilets. I hope they all have at least one of those basic services by now.

I was moved by many stories but particularly by the struggles of women struggling to feed and care for children under these dire conditions. It turned cold and rained and there were many holes in their houses. A grandmother told me that her 8-year-old grandson hadn’t left her side in two weeks because – like many children – he is traumatised and afraid.

All the women I met were working hard to survive and look after each other. I call them all “working women” but I also take my hat off to the fantastic women volunteering with the men in relief centres of all kinds. They are working to meet need like they have never worked before.

This day also reminds us about the status of women in the job market. The lack of gender pay equity is a mark of shame on this nation. At lunchtime, I signed a pledge to work towards pay equity with the Pay Equity Challenge Coalition.

The minimum wage is far too low and badly affects women workers. The Welfare Working Group Report is not just an attack on beneficiaries, it is a multifaceted attack on lower income working women: the more draconian the benefit system and the more desperate the people, the easier it is to keep wages low. Between the recession, free market capitalist ideology from the Government, and the earthquake,we now face ridiculously huge challenges and women as usual are on the front line.

We want more than a place on a Board. Much as I would like to see more women on these boards I am yet to see the evidence that says these women become advocates for change for lower-income women.

We want more than the vision outlined by Julia Gillard when she spoke in our Parliament about ANZAC solidarity in war, sport and free trade with no mention of women’s or children’s issues.

We want our communities, especially Christchurch, to recover in a manner that upholds the dignity, the needs and the rights of all working women. Because if we achieve that goal humanity across this country will thrive!

There is a trend out there called “laddism” which is actually old school sexism mutating as it does in many glorious forms. The Prime Minister is leading the way with his cosy chats with Tony Veitch. I am a great believer in second chances but Tony and his “hot chicks” list needs no encouragement, let alone from John Key. The counter attack on Sue Kedgely has been an illustration of ignorance and disrespect for women in general and for a particular woman whose leadership has changed this country for the better on many issues.

Another bizarre manifestation of“laddism” is the new police recruitment poster which targets young people hoping they will apply to join the force. It’s an advertising campaign that says things like “We’ve Got A lot in Common with Cougars We Like Em Young” . They have really multitasked with this effort by insulting older women and sounding predatory towards young flesh in one breath. A recent study stated that the police culture in this country has a way to go in terms of restoring women’s confidence after the Rickards affair. This new messaging is a huge step backwards!

The Facebook campaign against the “Radio Rock” wife raffle includes men and women and is having an impact on sponsors, but it’s going to take a more sustained effort to curb the new age of sexism. The mainstream media commentators are generally spinning any challenge as “ugly old women who are jealous”. This line is as old as the “men will be boys” justification. However, someone benefits from this behaviour. Ask yourself who?

The verbal apology that was given notwithstanding, this incident is very disturbing. As a former girl who formerly wore very short skirts because I thought I looked cool, I would be grateful if young women were not subjected to moralistic abuse about their appearance. Uniform policing is an almighty waste of time; if you want to incite rebellion, attack young people about their clothing identity.

Speaking of high school injustices, check out this story about two young Melbourne women who were refused the right to go to their school ball because they were same-sex partners. Hasn’t the school heard of human rights? One of their dads has lodged a complaint with the Australian Equal Opportunity Commission.

But my pick of of the week has to be this young hero from Timaru. William Struthers won the Lions Club Young Speechmaker of the Year competition, and will get to go to the USA and Canada. His speech was about “women and why they should stay in the kitchen” because children need a loving and caring mother at home to raise them.

Thanks William Struthers for your profound analysis of women and what’s best for children. I am sure the girls in your class were thrilled to know their job is cooking and staying at home with the kids. Of course children need loving and caring parents at home with them but it’s not a gender specific role. Have fun being a young expert making speeches about women and being rewarded by the Lions.

Lastly, I found out today via facebook that the Gender and Women’s Studies Department at Victoria University is under threat (again). We have until tomorrow lunchtime to write something in support of this vital centre of analysis. Otherwise the stereotyping and the discrimination will not stop!

Send submissions in support to lilian.loftus@vuw.ac.nz

The gender pay gap in the public sector is a bad joke.

According to the census, seven government departments have massive gender pay gaps of 24 percent or more; i.e on average they pay their male staff more than 24 percent more than their female staff.

These departments are: the Department of Building and Housing, the State Services Commission, the Crown Law Office, the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, the Ministry of Education, and the Ministry of Defence. Send them an email and let them know what you think of this if you’re so inclined!

One that really shocked me is the Minister’s own Ministry of Women’s Affairs. 82 percent of MWA staff are women but they still pay female staff on average 7.8 percent less than their male staff. At the Ministry of Women’s Affairs! Go figure.

I was also surprised that the Ministry of Education had a 30 percent gender pay gap, given how many teachers are women.

The Ministry of Defence was less surprising, as was the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet – I guess that’s just how John and the team like it.

And out of 35 government departments, only five are led by women.

I asked the Minister if she would support the Agenda for Change outlined at the end of the census, and join a cross party forum to advance women’s progress inside and outside Parliament. The answer was “no” unless the Agenda for Change fitted with her Ministry’s existing priorities.

So my advice to all you wonderful women? Read the Census of Women’s Participation, and don’t just get mad, get even!

Depending on how you read the reporting on the gender pay gap, it’s 15.4 percent in the public sector (according to this report), and 12.4 percent across the board (according to the Quarterly Employment Survey that came out last week). If you believe the Minister of women’s Affairs it’s 10.6 percent, but actually whichever figures we use it’s a disgrace.

The Minister of Women’s Affairs’ response to the new Census data on women is fascinating. She says the Government is working on getting more women on boards. Now, the census shows that of the only 9.3 percent of directors of the top 100 companies on the stock exchange are women – a figure that has barely moved since 2008. Even on Government boards, which the Government has control over, the percentage of women has slipped back half a percent. So despite this apparently being the Minister’s focus, we’re going backwards.

Furthermore, while it would be great to see more women on boards, it’s hard to escape seeing this focus on the elite level of boards of directors as tokenistic. How will this close the gender pay gap for school support workers and social workers in the public sector? What evidence is there that more women on boards results in pay increases for low-paid women workers?

The Minister also says getting more women to be plumbers and into other male-dominated professions will close the gender pay gap. Her theory is that women should abandon the low-paid caring professions and get into the male-dominated trades. I would love a woman plumber in my bathroom but that still doesn’t fix the gender pay gap for aged care workers in rest homes and residential care facilities. Furthermore, if women abandoned the caring professions the world will cease to function! Even a National Government might notice that.

As for flexible working hours, that law was developed by the indomitable Sue Kedgley and is a great innovation. But it doesn’t result in gender pay equity and shouldn’t be confused with it. It’s about working hours not hourly rates.

The Ministry of Women’s Affairs are also apparently “working to create pathways for women in low paid sectors to move upwards” and “tracking male and female graduate incomes”.

I would love to see these “pathways to move upwards” during this recession. I’m glad the Ministry produced research showing that after one year the pay gap between male and female graduates with the same qualifications was 6 percent, and after five years it was 17 percent, but research is not action!

Face facts Minister, we’re going backwards here.

Women are being discriminated against, and your Government axed the Pay and Employment Equity Unit.

The Green Party supports the Pay Equity Challenge Coalition in their call for a plan for meaningful action on these issue not irrelevant strategies which have no mandate from women’s organisations involved in gender equity.

The gender pay gap is 12 percent on average, but it ranges from 3 percent to 30 percent across the public sector.

At one event in Wellington, Minister of Women’s Affairs Pansy Wong admitted that Labour’s Sue Moroney and I had given her a “work out” on pay equity in the House last week, but she remains supremely confident that her strategies for avoiding real change to gender pay equity are sufficient.

These strategies are to encourage women into male-dominated trades, to encourage flexible working hours, to lobby for more women on boards, and to try to reduce domestic violence via on the spot safety orders. Many of these ideas have merit but will not reduce the gender pay gap.

Even more sobering was the speech by Human Rights Equal Employment Opportunities Commissioner Judy McGregor, who is working on the Human Rights Participation Survey about the status of women in key leadership roles, based on census data.

The survey hasn’t been completed yet, but indications are that women’s participation in leadership roles has plateaued and is slipping backwards. Numbers of women in key roles such as editors of major newspapers, heads of DHBs, national secretaries of unions, and CEOs in the public service are all trending downwards. University professors are the only field that is still improving.

What’s happening to these participation rates? Why are we losing ground? What should we do about this?

I am keen to engage in a dialogue with all women on this wake up call. Kate Sheppard would expect no less!

Without knowing the details of the cases, the Green Party is alarmed by the Attorney General’s statement that compensating these women would open the floodgates. I think he is saying that there are several hundred women who have experienced violent, possibly sexual, assault by the police, but we cannot afford to compensate all of them. So, some law enforcers attacking hundreds of women doesn’t merit compensation. What am I missing here?

Surely the culture of violence towards women has been addressed in the police force?  Surely there will be no more attacks needing compensation? Surely the state is very sorry that women should be subjected to this violence? In essence the Crown is acknowledging that, even without a conviction against some policemen, abuse has occurred. If they broke a leg at a rugby game ACC might step in. However, rape by the police requires no compensation?

I couldn’t agree more, but she won’t get very far convincing companies of “the business case” for putting women on their boards when her own Government won’t appoint them to its high powered think tanks. I asked Pansy series of questions about this in February and she couldn’t give a meaningful answer.

Catherine Delahunty: How can women and men stand shoulder to shoulder on Don Brash’s 2025 Taskforce, when it consists of five men and only one woman?

Hon PANSY WONG: It just shows that one good woman is worth more than four men.

Just this week her colleague Steven Joyce made his Ministerial appoitments to Polytechnic Councils and included only 20 women out of 78. The only notable exception is Paula Bennett’s Welfare Working Group, which consists of 6 women and 4 men. It’s telling that it’s “only” welfare where women’s contributions are seen to be valuable, and even more telling that one of those women is the former president of the Act Party.

Whether it’s belittling comments making a joke out of a serious gender gap, or empty threats to business breakfasts, Pansy is doing next to nothing to actually redress the situation, let alone address the even more signficant problem of gender pay equity.

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 journalist found out some interesting background under the Official Information Act. The new Minister of Women’s Affairs with the strong guidance of our Prime Minister want Women’s Affairs to be more inclusive. That means inviting men along to help “champion” women’s rights.

The Chief Executive of the Ministry Shenagh Gleisner said that inviting men would be helpful to champion the actions because she believes that men make most of the business decisions.

What actions came out of the meeting many women’s organisations might ask, as very few were invited? Why is it okay with Shenagh that men make most of the decisions in business? And which male champions did turn up?

Michael Barnett from the Auckland Chamber of Commerce (the only man who went) is not a well known champion of women’s equity issues, but after a couple of hours discussion on getting more women on boards he may now be a champion. That would be fantastic, if we wanted a champion to speak for us or believed for one minute that the knight on the white horse doesn’t gain unhelpful power from rescuing the maiden.

The Minister of Women’s Affairs is misdirecting her Ministry and the analysis is medieval. Women are the best advocates for themselves just like any other marginalised part of our society. If we had pay equity and Women’s Refuges were redundant we would still want to champion our own issues. We do need a proactive Ministry of Women’s Affairs but we doubt that the Government will let them act effectively on the important issues for all women.

A budget of $5 million dollars a year is not nothing, it’s more than women in the community can dream of and we want effective leadership on public policy.

But it looks like the sisters will have to do it for themselves all over again with the support of the brothers who know how to stand along us rather than speak for us at the top table.

So let’s remind the Prime Minister what the bottom line issues are. Sign the pay equity petition that Sue Moroney launched and add your comments to this brand new e-card on pay equity for women in the public sector and email it to John Key. PLEASE BE POLITE AND RESPECTFUL AND SEND ONLY ONE CARD. You can send the e-card from here. Thank you!

It was a good effort by the Hon Pansy Wong, but it just isn’t good enough. In her press release this afternoon, she writes:

Thirty-five influential women and representatives from small, medium and large businesses and unions met to debate a range of solutions, ideas and initiatives on how to deal with the challenging economic situation at the Women in Business Workshop on Tuesday.

The discussions from the workshop will be fed into Friday’s job summit.

I am sure that it was a wonderful luncheon where real issues were discussed in earnest. So why couldn’t this happen at the jobs summit, where presumably the crusty old boys will be making all the real decisions?

It reminds me of an old newspaper cartoon that I often recall with affection. It pictures a boardroom table with all the executives being male except one. The chairman asks “That was an excellent suggestion, would one of the gentlemen care to make it?”

Isn’t it time that influential women’s organisations got invited back in from the drawing room? I’m sure that we can all have tea together and maybe even solve a problem or two…

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 environment”.

It’s the now familiar Nat buzz-line, blaming the economic environment, but I suspect that there may be a more sinister reason at work here. It may be that the Nats simply don’t care about women. The Greens have a well developed policy on women’s affairs and pay equity issues, so I thought that before I started forming the conclusion that the nats simply don’t care, I had better check out what the official National party policy is on Women’s Affairs. What I found was probably the National Party’s most coherent and well articulated policy:

I think a blank white page with a picture of a bloke says all that needs to be said!

I hopped over to the Hand Mirror, expecting that I would get the usual coherent feminist perspective to counter balance my decidedly male perspective, but clearly they have been left almost speechless by this arrogant stupidity. However, Catherine Delahunty found her voice and let rip here.

It is clear that a crusty old boys network is firmly in charge of the Beehive once again. But I have to ask. Can they afford to alienate over half of their potential voters like this? Apparently, they think that kiwi women will forget all about this come 2011.