Gender equality progress

On International Women’s Day, Gender Tick director says we must stop trying to change minds about deeply entrenched behaviours and start legislating for the change we want to see

On International Women’s Day last year, I was feeling positive about the future of gender equality, in New Zealand and globally. My optimism was buoyed by the prospect of a report, due out within weeks, in which progress on the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals would be published. This International Women’s Day, having read that report, my optimism has receded, and I’m much less positive about our prospects for an equitable future.

In 2015, 193 countries, including New Zealand, agreed to the UN’s 17 sustainable development goals to be achieved by 2030. Gender equality was made a central component of these 17 goals, in recognition of the fact that ending inequality, resolving extreme poverty and halting the climate crisis is not possible if women, as half the world’s population, remain disadvantaged and disenfranchised.

Last year, progress on the genderbased goals was published for the first time, and it became clear that no country is doing enough to meet these goals by the target date of 2030. As we might have expected, the Scandinavians are doing best, Chad the worst and New Zealand trails Australia in 11th place.

Given that prognosis, you’d be forgiven for thinking gender inequality is an intractable enigmatic problem for which solutions are difficult to come by. But that’s not the case. It wouldn’t be difficult for New Zealand to leapfrog the other nations and come out on top of the table by 2030, creating a healthier, more productive and equitable society.

If we focused on three areas of action over the coming decade we would dramatically improve our progress towards gender equality and achieve the goals we set ourselves five years ago. These areas are neither new nor unproven. The evidence of their efficacy is solid. What lacks is political will.

We must begin by paying people for the unpaid, unsupported and unrecognised care work they do in the home. It was recently calculated by both the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and the Australian Government that women do almost twice as much work as men on average. This figure is so high because women do the lion’s share of unpaid care work. Research confirms that this work, caring for children, the sick and the elderly, also impacts their ability to do full-time paid employment. Making this change