The Social Change Collective’s first event for 2020 focused on Gender Equality in the NZ workplace.
Our speakers:
Sonja Randhawa, Wellington branch president of the National Council of Women New Zealand,
Pia Steiner, inclusion and diversity manager at Kiwibank,
Andrew Weaver, challenging the status-quo in workplace leadership (and executive director of Digital Identity NZ)
Rebecca Matthews, recently elected Wellington City Councillor and previous equity campaigner at education union NZEI.
After sharing their experiences with the issue in their lives and careers, we moved to a discussion with questions from the audience and moderator.
Some particularly salient topics identified by the panellists included maternity/paternity leave reform, addressing gender equality at early ages and increasing support to domestic and sexual violence organisations. Also noted was the fact that with climate change intensifying, gender inequality may be exacerbated with increases in corruption and domestic violence. The audience posed questions on a wide range of challenging themes such as quotas, pay transparency and calling out discrimination.
Each speaker brought different perspectives and respectfully balanced points of distinction in their viewpoints in a way that allowed for a very thought-provoking evening.
The panel identified some actions they encouraged the audience to go away and engage in:
Show up in the conversation (i.e. similar events, supporting speakers and organisations in this space)
Ask a lot of questions, get used to the discomfort of talking about this issue
Volunteer for relevant organisations (a particular mention was given to those in the STEM space, as well as organisations working directly on the issue)
Consider joining a union
Use your voice
As well as these you can:
Learn more about the Pay Transparency campaign by the Human Rights Commission
Educate your workspace by distributing info sheets like this one from Diversity Works.
Follow the work of Saunoamaali’i Karanina Sumeo - EEO Commissioner
Look into the TupuToa Internship Programme for Māori and Pacific tertiary students
Join or volunteer with the National Council for Women
Follow and support organisations such as Gender Equality NZ, Diversity Works
Learn about inspirational NZ women, “Woman Kind: New Zealand Women Making a Difference” is a wonderful book for this.
We were also pleased to have sent two of our attendees away to the celebration of International Womens Day by Global Women! Held on Friday 6 March 2020- Te Puna National Library.