Where are the women in business?

It’s easy to become complacent about social progress, especially under a still optimistic new government fronted by a progressive prime minister who will soon be a working mother. But International Women’s Day yesterday was a reminder that there are still battles to be won. In some ways, we have gone backwards. It was shocking to learn from Grant Thornton International’s annual Women in Business report that New Zealand ranks 33rd out of 35 countries when numbers of women on company leadership teams are measured. We used to be in the top 10.

According to the survey, representation of women on senior management teams has slipped to 18 per cent from 20 per cent in 2017. It is at its lowest since the survey started in the relative golden age of 2004, when it was up at 31 per cent.

This is dismal. Even Minister for Women Julie Anne Genter said she found the numbers ‘‘incredibly surprising’’.

Grant Thornton partner Stacey Davies revealed that there has been an increase in companies without women in senior roles. The reasons for this may be more than simple complacency. Women on Boards NZ chairwoman Julie Hardaker’s research shows the persistence of outdated stereotypes of women in business. Women are assumed to be ‘‘softer and more gentle and nurturing’’, and behaviours that diverge from those qualities are less accepted.

Genter’s response to the depressingly low numbers of senior women in business was to talk about concrete action taken by this Government. The extension of Paid Parental Leave to 26 weeks is an important step that will enable working mothers to maintain careers.

Pay equity is another priority, as women are disproportionately underpaid. Sixty per cent of workers on the minimum wage are women, Genter said. .

Davies argues that a company’s culture has to change, and that can only be done from within. Or more accurately, from the top.

Too many New Zealand businesses clearly haven’t bothered or don’t see the point.

All this is being discussed against a backdrop of genuine cultural and social change. On Wednesday Governor-General Dame Patsy Reddy launched a year-long celebration of 125 years since women won the vote in New Zealand by remarking on the momentum and anger behind the #metoo movement that has grown out of revelations of widespread sexual harassment and discrimination.

We may have to wait for another generation, perhaps one inspired or radicalised by #metoo, before we see the wider culture change that the Women in Business report shows to be so necessary.