New Zealand is a
sovereign island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. The country has two
main landmasses—the North Island, and the South Island —and around 600 smaller
islands. It has a total land area of 268,000 square kilometers (103,500 sq mi).
New Zealand is about 2,000 kilometers (1,200 mi) east of Australia across the
Tasman Sea and 1,000 kilometers (600 mi) south of the Pacific island areas of
New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga. Because of its remoteness, it was the last
large habitable land to be settled by humans. During its long period of
isolation, New Zealand developed a distinct biodiversity of animal, fungal, and
plant life. The country's varied topography and its sharp mountain peaks, such
as the Southern Alps, owe much to the tectonic uplift of land and volcanic
eruptions. New Zealand's capital city is Wellington, and its most populous city
is Auckland (New Zealand Land Cover Database, July 2009).
The 2018 New
Zealand census enumerated a resident population of 4,699,755, an increase of
10.8% over the 2013 figure. New Zealand is a predominantly urban country, with
73.7% of the population living in the seventeen main urban areas and 54.4%
living in the four largest cities of Auckland, Christchurch, Wellington, and
Hamilton. New Zealand cities generally rank highly on international livability
measures. For instance, in 2016 Auckland was ranked the world's third most livable
city and Wellington the twelfth by the Mercer Quality of Living Survey. Life
expectancy for New Zealanders in 2012 was 84 years for females, and 80.2 years
for males. Life expectancy at birth is forecast to increase from 80 years to 85
years in 2050 and infant mortality is expected to decline. New Zealand's
fertility rate of 2.1 is relatively high for a developed country, and natural
births account for a significant proportion of population growth. Consequently,
the country has a young population compared to most industrialized nations,
with 20% of New Zealanders being 14 years old or younger. In 2018 the median
age of the New Zealand population was 38.1 years. By 2050 the median age is
projected to rise to 43 years and the percentage of people 60 years of age and
older to rise from 18% to 29%.In 2008 the leading cause of premature death was
cancer, at 29.8%, followed by ischemic heart disease, 19.7%, and then
cerebrovascular disease, 9.2%. As of 2016, total expenditure on health care is
9.2% of GDP (Statistics New Zealand, June 2007).
Not too long-ago
New Zealand once led in gender equality. In the World Economic Forum’s annual
report on the global gender gap, New Zealand was ranked in 9th place in 2016.
The Global Gender Gap Index ranks countries on how far women are behind men in
regards to health, education and economic and political indicators. Instances,
where women have rated ahead of men, are not counted as inequality. New Zealand
is a party to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development
(OECD). In the OECD's final report on Gender Equality in Education, Employment
and Entrepreneurship it was found that women in New Zealand do more unpaid work
than paid work, gain more tertiary qualifications than men and women-owned new
enterprises outperform men-owned enterprises. Nonetheless, despite the gap
between wage equality slowly closing in, the report found that the government
funding allocated to reduce gender inequality in New Zealand is on the low side
in comparison to other countries in the OECD(Gender inequality in New Zealand,
April 2012).
Throughout
history, gender inequality has generally affected women more so than men. As a
result, there has been a lot of controversy in respect of the matter and
activism since the 19th century. New Zealand has had a long history of
promoting women's equality. It was the first nation in the world to give women
the right to vote in the 19th century. Previously, women were unable to vote
until 1893 and were not able to stand for parliament until 1919. The first
woman to win an election was Elizabeth McCombs in 1933. Iriaka Ratana was the
first Maori woman MP in 1949 and Dame Jenny Shipley was the first woman to be
prime minister in New Zealand from 1997 to 1999. Historical inequalities for
men include the prohibition of homosexuality for men until the homosexual law
reform bill in 1986 and military conscription.
The legal framework
in New Zealand provides comprehensive protection against all forms of
discrimination covered by the CEDAW. In 1973 The Domestic Purpose Benefit was
introduced for all parents caring for dependent children without the support of
a partner (mainly women). The Accident Compensation Amendment Act 2010 also
extended compensation to non-earners, benefiting women who do full-time unpaid
work in the domestic home. New Zealand has also enacted a number of legislative
means to provide for equal pay for women, outlawing sexual discrimination and
sexual harassment in the workplace and proposes to set out rights in regards to
equal employment for career progression in the workplace. Legislation in
respect of gender equality in the workplace include the Equal Pay Act 1972, the
State Sector Act 1988and the Human Rights Act 1993.The New Zealand Bill of
Rights Act 1990 protects all New Zealand citizens from discrimination on the
basis of sex(Legislation for gender equity, n.d.).
Despite these
strides in the legal framework New Zealand still has some old laws which have
not been repealed or replaced. Abortion is still listed under the Crimes Act
1961. Two certifying consultants (doctors) must agree that continuing the pregnancy
would result in serious danger to a woman's mental or physical health in order
for women to access abortion. Rape is not a grounds in itself for abortion in
New Zealand. Secondly, the Crimes Act, ‘assault on a child, or by a male on a
female’, sets the maximum penalty for a male assaulting a female at two years
and such assaults are not covered by the less restrictive 'bail as of right'
provisions. The equivalent charge of common assault has a maximum one-year
penalty and is covered by 'bail as of right' provisions. The Law Commission
reviewed the Crimes Act in 2009 and recommended a repeal of this law and
suggested that the maximum penalty for common assault be increased so that the
more serious cases can still be dealt with appropriately. The proposed Family
and Whānau Violence Legislation Bill seeks to address the limitations of using
‘male assaults female’ as a mechanism to address domestic violence. There are
some other laws refer to ‘male assaults female’ which creates further gender
inequalities. The Accident Compensation Act 2001 allows victims of certain
crimes the ability to make claims for compensation for mental injury. Male
assault female is one of those crimes. Thirdly, A woman can be charged with the
lesser crime of infanticide if she kills her child and "the balance of her
mind was disturbed". There is no equivalent for men.
In New Zealand,
there is at least one case of a man being charged with murder where if he was a
woman he would have been charged with infanticide (Prosecuting family violence,
2000). Although New Zealand consistently ranks in the top half dozen of
countries in the world when it comes to equality between men and women, it is
not complacent in terms of gender equality. New Zealand women still do not
experience the full equality guaranteed by the law. Across the economy, women's
skills are under-used in leadership and women continue to earn less than men –
even if they have the same qualifications, and similar job descriptions. Family
violence also continues to be a cause of considerable disquiet. Firstly, New
Zealand has had a high level of participation by women in public life and this
is evident from the modest female representation in politics and the judiciary.
However, women continue to be under represented in parliament. Currently, there
is a 40.8% female representation in parliament. At present there are no adopted
quotas and targets to increase the number of women to ensure the equal
representation of women in all publicly appointed bodies by the New Zealand
Government. Rather, the government has developed a policy of ‘soft targets’ to
promote equal representation. This was criticized by the Human Rights
Commission as being insufficient as there is no dedicated machinery to guide
it. The government's current goals and
priorities in terms of employment equality for New Zealand women are linked to
its broader goal of improving New Zealand's prosperity in the economy. This is
to allow women to have more choices and opportunities to use their strengths to
maximize social and economic success. The
New Zealand workforce shows a pattern of occupational segregation. For example,
women tend to work in lower paying jobs, which contributes, in part, to the
wage gap. Dangerous jobs are tend to be mainly male occupations, leading to
significantly more workplace injuries and deaths among men. With regard to pay
equity, the domestic gender pay gap in New Zealand when comparing full-time
workers is rather low in comparison to other countries. The gender pay gap in
New Zealand was calculated to be 9.9% in 2014, which was the lowest in the Asia
Pacific Region. In terms of education, generally, women tend to outperform men
and women tend to fare better in participation.
New Zealand
women have the right to non-discrimination in the ownership and access to land.
The Maori Land Act 1993 provides for gender equality in the control and use of
land and resources. In terms of non-land assets, there are no restrictions on
their equal rights to property, regardless of marital status. Women also have
the equal right to financial services pursuant to the Human Rights 1993.Women
can access the same comprehensive range of health services as men, as well as
having a range of services in place specifically designed for women's health
needs – such as maternity services and population screening programs. On
average, women have better health outcomes than men and women generally have a
higher life expectancy. However, there are areas in which New Zealand does not
fare so well in terms of health. New Zealand has one of the highest teen
pregnancy rates in the OECD with the Māori teen pregnancy rate being rather
high.
New Zealand is
making great strides to reclaim its place as the top nation in gender equality.
References:
New Zealand Land Cover Database, July 2009.Ministry for the
Environment Retrieved from https://www.mfe.govt.nz/more/science-and-data/classification-systems/land-classification-systems
Subnational population estimates at 30 June 2009. Statistics
New Zealand. 30 June 2007. Retrieved from http://archive.stats.govt.nz/
Gender inequality in New Zealand, OECD report 22/04/2012.
retrieved from http://www.oecd.org/newsroom/tacklegendergaptoboostgrowthsaysoecd.htm
Legislation for gender equity,(n.d.), National Equal
Opportunities Network. Retrieved from http://www.neon.org.nz/payequitymonitoringtool/legislationgenderequity/
Cabinet Social Policy Committee REFORM OF FAMILY VIOLENCE
LAW Paper Three, 2000.Prosecuting family violence. Retrieved from https://www.justice.govt.nz/assets/documents/publications/fv-reform-paper-3-prosecuting.pdf
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