President's Update

BPW NZ Newsletter May 2025 – President Janet

In 1939 BPW NZ was established to improve the status of all women by our first President Margery Toulson. We passed a resolution at our 2025 conference to continue with the

Margery Toulson Scholarship as we keep our history alive and continue in the footsteps of

previous Presidents to further advocate for the rights of all women.

In the last couple of weeks, we have stood up again to hold the New Zealand government to

account. We heard of the government’s decision to make changes to the Equal Pay Act and

based on our strong policy over the years about pay transparency, gender and ethnic pay

gaps we responded with a media release against the changes. When a democratic process is

bypassed, our rights to speak up have also been bypassed. At the very least New Zealanders

should have been afforded the time to submit on the issue and have their right to be heard

by a select committee. This is a complex matter and many in our communities do not

understand the difference between pay parity and pay equity.

Quotes from Equal Employment Opportunity Commissioners are relevant too:

“The Government’s haste and motive has been labelled a human rights breach” by Dame Judy McGregor, the former EEO Commissioner; and

current EEO Commissioner Gail Pacheco said:

“Any savings for the Government would come from the pockets of women working in jobs that were undervalued.”

BPW NZ along with Zonta, UN Women and the Human Rights Commission are members of

the Women’s Empowerment Committee who encourage workplaces to be signatories and

enter the Camellia Awards showcasing their work toward women’s empowerment and

equality in the workplace.

Aotearoa NZ is a signatory to the Convention for the Elimination of Discrimination Against

Women (CEDAW), which includes:

Article 11, Section 1d – The right to equal remuneration, including benefits and to equal treatment in respect of work of equal value as well as equality of treatment in the evaluation of the quality of work; and

Article 11, Section 3 - Protective legislation relating to matter covered in the article shall be reviewed periodically in the light of scientific and technological knowledge and shall be revised, repealed or extended as necessary.

The CEDAW Committee recommendation as part of this review process details: 33(a) Effectively enforce the principle of equal pay for work of equal value in order to narrow and eventually close the gender pay gap, including for Maori, Pacific, and migrant women, by

1. conducting regular labour inspections;

2. applying gender-neutral analytical job classification and evaluation methods;

3. conducting regular pay surveys; and

4. encouraging employers to publish a narrative with their gender pay gap data, with a view to better understanding the reasons behind the gender wage gap, and to take appropriate remedial measures.

So, our work continues today as relevant as it was in 1939, and of course by the suffragettes

to earn the right to vote. We encourage you all to be aware of these issues and prepare

resolutions for the next AGM to ensure our policy is ready to back us in further advocacy

work.

I hope you all had a pleasant Mother’s Day – whether a mother to a child, cat, dog or friend!

Nga mihi nui

Janet