Gender equality is the state of equal ease of access to resources and opportunities regardless of gender, including economic participation and decision-making, and the state of valuing different behaviours, aspirations, and needs equally, also regardless of gender. Gender equality is a human right, which is recognised under the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights., United Nations Declaration of Human Rights.
Gender equality is increasingly framed as being central to the realisation of both modernisation and economic efficiency, and its achievement presented as a key to good governance. In 2025, New Zealand was ranked 5th out of a total of 148 countries in the Global Gender Gap Report which ranks countries in terms of gender equality in the population under four dimensions: economic participation and opportunity, educational attainment, health and survival, and political empowerment.
Overview According to the New Zealand Government's Progress Report on the Beijing Platform for Action, published May 2024, the biggest challenges for achieving gender equality on a national level are increased rates in women's underutilisation, underemployment, and unemployment, the gender pay gap, high levels of family and sexual violence, and addressing gender inequity in health.
In the World Economic Forum's 2025 annual report on the Global Gender Gap, New Zealand ranks at 5th place – the only country in the region of Eastern Asia & The Pacific to rank in the Top 10. The report analyses the gender gap through four dimensions: economic participation and opportunity, educational attainment, health and survival, and political empowerment. The overall gender parity score for New Zealand in 2025 sits at 82.7%, slightly below the peak of 85.6% achieved in 2023. The decline is partially due to the drop in political empowerment, with Parity in ministerial positions dropping from 81.8 percent in 2023 to 53.8 percent in 2025 and Parliamentary representation dropping after the achievement of full parity in 2023. The Economic Participation and Opportunity subindex is following a downward trend, dropping to 70% parity for the first time since 2007. A limitation of the report is that the score is not affected when men are disadvantaged compared to women. That is, a gender gaps favouring women are not counted as gaps.
The Basic Index of Gender Inequality (BIGI) seeks to address the shortcomings of WEF Global Gender Gap index and other gender inequality measures by selecting the most broadly applicable metrics and including disadvantages faced by men in the score. BIGI has three dimensions, educational opportunities in childhood, healthy life expectancy, and, overall life satisfaction. New Zealand scores -0.01709 and is in fifth place globally when ranked by BIGIs average absolute deviation from parity. A negative score in BIGI indicates that men are disadvantaged compared to women.
History
Pre-colonisation and early European settlement In precolonial Māori society, women had a say in the affairs of their iwi or hapū and could inherit land. They had varied responsibilities as tribal leaders, military strategists, warriors, poets, composers and healers. Their roles were irrespective of their gender. Kinship systems in Māori tribes were often arranged matrilineally.
During the 19th century, European settlers assumed that Māori women were not powerful in society. Due to this assumption, they only negotiated with Māori men, and caused inequality between men and women to arise. The settlers brought with them patriarchal ideas, including the expectation that women are wives, mothers and homemakers, while men are supposed to support their wives and children financially.
Women's suffrage The first period of intense activism to challenge gender inequality was from the 1880s-1890s. Kate Sheppard, the Women's Christian Temperance Union, and women's franchise leagues, fought for the right for women to be able to vote. This was interlinked with a campaign for moral reform, including the banning of alcohol. Suffragettes submitted bills to parliament 3 years in a row – with the Legislative Council (the Upper House) blocking two bills in 1891 and 1892. In 1893, New Zealand became the first country in the world to give women (Pākehā and Māori) the right to vote in national elections. Other gender equality campaigns at the time focused on women's rights within marriage, and against the double standard that prevailed in relation to sexual behaviour.
Gender inequality in parliament Women were not able to stand for parliament until 1919. The first woman to win an election was Elizabeth McCombs in 1933. Iriaka Rātana was the first Māori woman MP, elected in 1949. Dame Jenny Shipley was the first woman to be Prime Minister in New Zealand from 1997 to 1999. Gender equal representation was reached from October 2022 to October 2023, when there were 61 female MPs and 60 male MPs.
Second-wave feminism The second period of intense activism challenging gender inequality focused on broad cultural issues, political representation, employment issues, and sexuality and reproductive rights. This led to legal and social changes in New Zealand. The first significant event was the establishment of the Society for Research on Women in 1966. Another significant achievement was the establishment of the Equal Pay Act 1972. The Manatū Wāhine Ministry for Women (under the name Ministry of Women's Affairs) was established in 1984. The Human Rights Commission Act 1977 prohibited discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation, pregnancy, marital status (including living in a de facto relationship) or family status.
The country ratified the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) on 10 January 1985, and its optional protocol on 7 September 2000. The Ministry for Women is responsible for administrating the CEDAW and its Optional Protocol. The committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women makes recommendations on any issues affecting women that the state should address. As of December 2024, the committee has made 40 general recommendations on issues affecting women that states should devote more attention to.
Gender inequality in the New Zealand Defence Force Conscription of men into combat roles was enacted during the New Zealand Wars, the First World War, and the Second World War. Following the First World War, men who failed to serve as required lost some civil rights for 10 years. Women were barred from serving in combat roles during these periods and therefore were not conscripted into battle. In the Second World War, both women and men were conscripted into essential jobs in New Zealand to fill the gap of the male workers who were fighting. From 1961 to 1973 there was compulsory military service for men drawn from a ballot.New Zealand's first report under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights January 1982 CCPR/C/10/Add.6 - paragraph 99 The New Zealand Defence Force became fully integrated in 1977, allowing women to join the Army, Navy, and Air Force alongside men. However, women were unable to serve in combat zones until 2000.
Prohibition of homosexuality
Historical inequalities for men include the prohibition of homosexuality for men until the homosexual law reform bill in 1986. From 1893 to 1986, male homosexual acts had faced severe legal penalties in New Zealand, evolving from capital punishment to life imprisonment and hard labour. Lesbianism was never criminalised, however lesbians sometimes lost their jobs, or were sent to psychiatric hospitals.
Legislation for gender equity Section 21 of the Human Rights Act 1993 prohibits discrimination in the workplace on the grounds of sex (including pregnancy and child birth), marital status and family status. The New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990 protects all New Zealand citizens from discrimination on the basis of sex.
The legal framework in New Zealand provides comprehensive protection against all forms of discrimination covered by the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW).Ministry for Women, New Zealand's 8th report under the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, 2016, CEDAW/C/NZL/8 The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights require New Zealand to ensure equal enjoyment of rights between men and women.