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But what? You ask. Women have jobs and opportunities and shiny cars and bodily autonomy and silly Victorian hangovers like marital rape still being legal 28 years ago have mostly been ironed out.
Correct. We have made headway in treating women like human beings, but we still have some pretty substantial work to do. Now, you might know all about the glaring discrepancies in this country’s gender equity, or you might be open-minded to learning. Or you might have just logged out of your Men’s Rights forum after a particularly painful rehashing of some institutionalised misandry and are now grooming your neckbeard. Either way, this country isn’t the feminist utopia we’d like to pretend it is.
1 in 4 women in New Zealand will experience unwanted and distressing sexual contact in her lifetime. Yet our Government has consistently failed to fund services which help survivors and their communities. Last year, this went so far as Wellington Rape Crisis needing to accept funding from famously feminist Hell’s Pizza to stay afloat. When the agency took issue with this, they were told they just should’ve a chat to Paula. As opposed to, say, their appointed funding managers at MSD. Their bad, obviously.
Our Government also forced, for the second time, an already desperate community in Auckland to take to the streets to save the city’s only 24 hour rape crisis phone line. And again the Government had to re-think just how vital that service was for its clients, and white-knight in with money. Despite all the evidence that survivors need the anonymity and easily-accessible support a phone line provides, they only really cared when the closure hit the news.
This country has implemented a punitive system for single mothers who fall pregnant while on the DPB, forcing them to get “work ready” (for jobs that don’t exist) once their youngest Poor Life Choice turns one. Because caregiving is not a job. And daycare is easy to find and never costs more than it would have to stay at home.
To supplement this, women on the DPB have the option of utilising government-funded long-acting reversible contraceptives. Which would be wonderful if it were extended to all women, and if the methods that were specifically aimed at solo mothers weren’t the kind that require invasive insertion, are progesterone-only, and give the very clear message they can’t be trusted to use daily contraceptive methods.
Another uncomfortable statistic is that 1 in 3 women will experience at least one form of family violence. A Taskforce for Action on Violence within Families was established way back in 2005 to help combat this. However, after performing abysmally, a Family Violence Unit within MSD was set up to try and have a firm home for the Taskforce projects. Yet the Taskforce has still completed virtually none of their (strategically waffly) goals, and the Unit was disbanded last year.
On average, 14 women will be killed by their partner per year in New Zealand and police are called to around 200 family violence incidents every day. However, in 2011, Women’s refuge received a funding cut of $800,000. Despite the agency still needing volunteers to do much of its crisis work, and the risk of waiting lists for our most vulnerable women, it was obviously some sort of gravy train for domestic abuse survivors.
Women with disabilities are vastly more likely to experience sexual violence, yet the Government was so intent on merging the country’s only residential education centre for girls with complex needs, with a boy’s school, that it had to be deemed unlawful for them to listen to the evidence that it would put these girls at risk.
Abortion in New Zealand is still listed under the Crimes Act. In 2013, it is illegal to get an abortion if your reasons are simply that you do not want to be pregnant. Economic means don’t even qualify as a reason. Instead, you have to claim that you are mentally unwell in order to terminate a pregnancy, after seeing 2 certifying consultants as well as whoever referred you in the first place. That’s because we all know that contraception is foolproof and people have abortions with complete flippancy. Also we should just keep our legs shut. Or something.
Women in New Zealand are more likely to do unpaid labour, to be paid minimum wage and to be paid, on average, 14% less than men. The country’s elected representatives are 38 of 121.
Every single one of these statistics and the violence figures above, get worse when the analysis includes breakdowns of ethnicity, abilities and gendered minorities. For instance: Māori women have a much lower life expectancy than women in other developed nations; trans women still get put in men’s jails; have a much higher rate of sexual violence, suicide and employment discrimination; and migrant women are more likely to be killed by their partners than any other group in the country.
When the most basic services for women are constantly at threat of cuts and closure, we can no longer use a woman 120 year ago who got us the vote first, as our progressive bedtime story. When the statistics of gender equity in this country show that we aren’t as advanced as we’d like to think we are, we can’t keep taking solace in having had 2 (out of 38, woo!) female Prime Ministers.
If I had a dollar for every person to suggest I move to Saudi Arabia if I think we have it tough in this country, I would be able to bridge our goddamn pay gap. Why on earth would we take solace in knowing we’re not that bad compared to countries with regimes which literally stone women to death? Why do we continue to feverishly insist there’s nothing to see here when people bring up sexism? Why do I feel like I have to be constantly thankful to have basic human rights, lest I’m perceived to be ungrateful?
This is no country for women. And the sooner we can admit that to ourselves, the sooner we can start doing something about it.
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Brilliantly written…
A further point is that when solo-parents are being periodically bashed by this no-hope “government”, they refer 99% of the time to solo-mothers. Never solo dads. (Except when challenged on their overtly sexist strategies and then Bennett will add a symbolic male case into the mix.)
Because as we all know solo-mothers get pregnant through parthenogenesis. (Usually whilst watching “Shortland Street”, because, y’know, it’s so romantically conducive to “popping out” another ‘Unwise Choice’.)
Anyway, this should be required reading at High School gender studies. (Do we have gender studies? That would compliment Rugby Studies quite nicely.)
One of the negative flip-sides of ANY progressive development towards equal rights is that the pre-existing order of entitlement believe that any continuing movement in progression is ‘turning things the other way.’
The whole fact that the sad little neck beards of Reddit have an idea in their heads they are ‘put upon’ by feminism, and that ‘men’s rights’ needs to be a thing, is evidence of this entitlement and how difficult it is to continue.
What I think this means is that once the real basic stuff is apparently ‘sorted’ (women can own property, women can vote, women can attend fantasy and sci-fi conventions if they are dressed as anime characters) it becomes harder to make further changes because the entitled order feels things have now gone too far and ‘gone the other way.’
Of course, everything you say is right, but I think this ingrained sense of entitlement is why we have come to think NZ is a feminist utopia and why so many zeros tell you you should feel grateful for your lot.
Yup. Entitlement and the safety in shunning any facts that make people feel uncomfortable about the role they (passively or actively) play in contributing to sexism.
The latter is also applicable to people who are disadvantaged by sexism, but feel unsafe at the idea they might be victims of it themselves. Because it’s much nicer to think we’re past that. And some women are “never discriminated against based on their gender”.
Because discrimination must look like Jim Crow laws and suffragettes being carted off to prison or else it’s not real. Truefacts.
Great article Coley, thank you.
Well written, generally. But I take issue with a couple of points. Yes, abortion is technically illegal if you don’t want to be pregnant. But the law isn’t applied properly in abortion practice in New Zealand. There is nothing to stop a doctor couching a woman who “doesn’t want to be pregnant”, or economically can’t afford to be under the mental health exemption. It happens. And, as the Supreme Court ruled last year, the Supervisory Committee are barred from reviewing individual cases. So yes, quoting the black letter law may help with your point, but it is slightly disengaged from reality.
Secondly, your facts regarding women being paid 14% less than men are misleading. Women and men hired to do the same job are generally paid the same amount. Otherwise that’s legal discrimination. Cumulative figures for different jobs are misleading as to true inequality. Are you saying a female teacher should be paid the same as a male surgeon?
Women in the same roles as men are, sadly, still not paid the same amount regardless of the legislation. This is particularly glaring between sectors, but given one of the first things National did in their first term was to disestablish the unit within the Department of Labour that was set up specifically to monitor pay equity, we don’t have enough intensive data on that point. Just overwhelming anecdotal evidence.
Also, given how women dominate low-paid roles, an overall picture of gendered work and the gap in pay that creates (not in comparable roles, but overall) is still important.
I completely agree with your point about abortion for the most part, though there are still massive access issues depending on where you live in New Zealand. While Family Planning still fights for licenses to give medical abortions (pills people can take home), this will remain the case.
(Not saying this was your intent, but) I also don’t have a lot of time for the idea that because abortion providers currently operate at odds with the law, people shouldn’t point out that it’s inappropriate to have the procedure still on the Crimes Act. The number of certifying consultants (and hoops, including being “coached” to say certain things) is still a huge barrier to what is a medically straightforward procedure.
I guess I just don’t understand the anecdotal evidence. If we are talking about inequity as a result of women electing, for example, to take parental leave, then I can understand that. But statistics which claim pay inequity without anything other than anecdotal evidence aren’t reliable IMHO.
I completely agree with you point about abortion providers being at odds with the law. I find the current “don’t ask, don’t tell” state of abortion law to be disgraceful. Parliament should reform it to make it legal and properly supervised, as opposed to leaving it hanging on a poorly reasoned Supreme Court judgment (ala Roe v Wade) which fails to apply the law properly (albeit, electing to apply it practically and for the same result).
“But statistics which claim pay inequity without anything other than anecdotal evidence aren’t reliable IMHO.”
I don’t understand what you mean by this. Statistics without anything other than anecdotal evidence aren’t reliable? Well, if they’re based solely on anecdotal evidence, they’re not statistics. They’re anecdotes. I feel like I’m missing something.
Many positions involve a negotiated salary. Women are a) socialised not to be as aggressive as men, and b) when they are aggressive in negotiations, are penalised for it rather than rewarded. In mock hiring studies women routinely get awarded lower salaries than men with same (OR FEWER) quals, but it’s not (usually…) conscious discrimination. <- However that was American data so I don't know what the situation is in NZ, but tbh I expect it to be the same.
Other complications around pay: fields which are predominantly female are valued less than fields that are predominantly male, aka why *shouldn't* a female teacher earn as much as a male surgeon? Okay, there's some discrepancy in training in that example, but it holds for more 'equivalent' roles.
Given also that men are more likely to be promoted than women (see for example the gender ratio of nurses, and then the gender ratio of head nurses/supervisors/etc), does that count as part of a 'pay gap'? You can argue that the men are working tougher roles, but they're unfairly advantaged in getting those roles; sexism is indirectly affecting rates of pay.
Um… I know more things about gender and pay but I've forgotten them for the moment.
Women are a) socialised not to be as aggressive as men, and b) when they are aggressive in negotiations, are penalised for it rather than rewarded.
i’ve seen research from overseas showing women do ask for raises and promotions as much as men do. they just don’t get them as often. here’s the link:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/on-leadership/for-women-in-business-the-squeaky-wheel-doesnt-get-the-grease/2012/01/09/gIQAGRuqlP_story.html
a quote:
… there was no significant difference in the proportion of women and men who asked for increased compensation or a higher position.
Yet the rewards were different.
Women who initiated such conversations and changed jobs post MBA experienced slower compensation growth than the women who stayed put. For men, on the other hand, it paid off to change jobs and negotiate for higher salaries—they earned more than men who stayed did.
You say “electing to take parental leave” like there’s no gigantic social structure influencing that decision.
As my father said: rules are made to be broken.
The law as it is is clearly broken and thus needs fixing. You don’t leave it as it is when it’s so clearly broken because it will end up causing massive injustice. In fact, it already is in requiring people to lie to get what should be a personal right.
Excellently written piece Coley. This may yet become a country for women, if you and others like you keep fighting for the much needed changes to make it so.
Original pseudonym, pertinent statistics. If I had a $ for every time I’d been discriminated against, and underpaid on the basis of gender I’d be a very wealthy woman. we should take MSD to the UN
My wife is doing her thesis about this very subject but from a Maori woman perspective. I am going to refer her to this article, thanks.
Great breakdown of the state of things for women in this country today. It should be required reading for anyone who thinks that feminism is no longer relevant!
And then we get job ads like this one (I would grab a screen shot but I’m not in a position to do so ATM):
Dammit, where’s the edit option?
WHAAAAAT. Am tweeting. Ugh. Thanks for the heads up though, jebus.
Unbelievable.
The ironic thing is, I know half a dozen women who are more familiar with the mystical happenings beneath a bonnet than me.
But according to Scarles, I’m “better qualified” because I have XY chromosomes?
Ain’t that the truth.
well written, i enjoy anything that points out NZ’s terrible attitude toward inequalities of all kinds, and the rationalisation that comes with it. we freely compare gender inequality to saudi arabia, income inequality to north korea, and compare our poverty levels to those of africa in a vain hope that it means we don’t have to think about it any more.
had a good chuckle at that job ad above. i can just imagine someone defending that: “aye, what’s wrong with that? blokes know more about cars!”
My thoughts exactly. It forms the pillars of born-to-rule caste privilege.
Get real. How can you expect a Government to fund rape crisis when it has to find a million dollars to push the sale of a public asset even when its web-site for expressions of interest can’t cope with the demand?
The same way they find the money to
- hire “consultants” to tell them things about the welfare system they already know ($800K)
- give golden handshakes such as Leslie Longstones ($400K+)
- commit $100,000,000 to develop and use payroll software that doesn’t even work
I’m sure readers can find other examples. It isn’t that the money isn’t there, it’s the VALUE placed upon sex abuse treatment that is the real issue.
FYI sexual trauma costs this country a fortune each year in terms of lost productivity, treatment costs (physical and mental) and social problems. This can be reduced if sexual abuse services can provide treatment as soon as possible since the longer the wait to get treatment, the more recovery time is extended.
I can’t decide if this is meant to be satire or not.
That you believed this article needed 2 selfies and cleavage probably points to what a marginalised position women are in as of 2013 in NZ.
Good god, woman! Cover yourself up, you wanton hussy! Next thing you know, people will start thinking that women are allowed to dress the way they want and still be taken seriously when they write coherent and powerful articles.
And selfies? Really? Don’t you know that any respectable blogger has to hire a professional photographer for their author pics and avatars? No wonder women are marginalised.
HAHAHAHAHAHAH. Best <3
[...] You want cold hard facts? Like Coley said, [...]
Question on the contraception comment: Would you support long-term contraception if it was available to all and government funded (i.e free)? Alongside that question, do you think it would be helpful if we were able to enable women to control their fertility, so that they can choose when they wish to become pregnant (clearly that’s already possible but doesn’t seem to work for all)? And , finally, do you think there is an age, if any, that should be targeted for this type of provision e.g. 18, 21 etc.
I’m interested in your views on this. Thanks.