Change the law for female fairness
It is New Zealand’s Suffrage Day tomorrow - a day when the country celebrates its achievements since women won the vote in 1893.
Taking stock is always a valuable thing to do. Some commentators believe the business argument has moved on from gender politics, and in many ways it has. Diversity means so much more than the politics between men and women, and the battle to equal the balance for people with differing intellectual and physical abilities, religious and sexual orientation, is really only just beginning. Not to mention for that great elephant in the room - social class
Accounting firm Xero’s managing director Anna Curzon however, reminded me this week there is still much work we have to do to bring equality to working women’s lives, and make our businesses naturally reflective of the societies they operate in.
Curzon operates in the global technology sector, where women make up a measly 15 per cent of the total staff number in firms. She says Xero is doing well employing 27 per cent of its workforce on the tech side and 39 per cent of the workforce as a whole.
Creditable indeed. But New Zealand joins many other countries in patting itself on the back for achieving a quarter to a third female workforce.
Her view is to tackle the problem early, in our schools. She said: ‘‘When we look at the pipeline, it’s vital we don’t just think about how to raise women through the ranks within our organisations. We need to think right back to our education system.’’
She suggested that private and public sectors work together as a team to help create a generation of digitally literate kids.
An interesting approach. Of course, the subject of gender equality in the workforce is complicated, and I know that many women in business feel passionately that pressure and patience rather than quotas are the ways to make progress. I totally disagree. The only answer is legislation to force the issue. Otherwise we face waiting an unacceptable number of years to change inadequate figures from firms operating in many sectors. Remember, that even tripling that 15 per cent, is still under half.