A range of reports on International Women's Day shows women continue to be disadvantaged and suffer from workplace imbalance and the gender pay gap.
A report from ASB Bank found widespread support for working from home, but the burdens and downsides are incurred by women more than men. Photo: 123rf
The work-based learning organisation Competenz wanted to see more women enter trades as a way to help redress gender imbalance issues.
Competenz general manager Toni Christie said women were still significantly under-represented in the trades, with several barriers still in place for women who wanted to embark on a trade career.
"I believe the biggest barrier is the opinion held by many that the trades are for men and the lack of knowledge about the opportunities that exist within trades for women," she said.
"There is a real opportunity for more employers to be willing to create suitable working environments for women as often women feel they must adapt to the male-dominated culture that exists in a business."
Christie said female participation in training in manufacturing, forestry, maritime, baking and mechanical engineering were slightly higher than other industries.
Property ownership
Meanwhile, a report from ASB Bank and the Institute of Economic Research has found widespread support for working from home, but the burdens and downsides are incurred by women more than men.
ASB chief executive Vittoria Shortt said flexible working had become more important, but raised challenges and work was needed to ensure these options were genuinely creating benefits for everyone.
"Our study [shows] women still taking on responsibility for the bulk of domestic chores, the risk is that they are being disadvantaged both at work and in the home, trying to juggle two roles."
Meanwhile, a survey by property research firm CoreLogic finds women have less overall share of property ownership than men, making them potentially disadvantaged by recent wealth gains from real estate.
It showed women exclusively owned 23.5 percent of property compared with more than 24 percent owned by men, while women owned nearly 27 percent of investment properties against men's more than 28 percent.
Closing the pay gap
And pay equity group Mind The Gap has released its Public Pay Gap Registry, showing 47 large employers are reporting pay gaps for women, Māori and Pasifika.
MindTheGap spokesperson Dellwyn Stuart said the registry was an important milestone in eliminating discriminatory pay gaps.
"Committing to transparency is the first step. These leaders have collectively sent a clear signal that pay gap reporting is now part of modern business practice and something all employers - state, not for profit and commercial - need to embrace."
The organisation wants the government to bring in standard pay gap reporting for all employers.