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• 4.1 Introduction
• 4.2 Women in local government
• National patterns
• Women’s representation in three regions
• Membership patterns in the three selected regions
• The women members
• The election process
• Participation on council
• The contribution of women to local government politics
• Factors influencing the representation of women on district councils
• Discussion
• 4.3 Women on producer and other agricultural boards
• The women members
• Their contribution to the boards
• Factors influencing womens’ participation on boards
• 4.4 Women on school boards of trustees
• 4.5 Women on health authorities
• 4.6 Women on conservation boards
• 4.7 Summary

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4. Women as Decision Makers

4.1 Introduction

In New Zealand, community and grassroots participation is the most common means used by women to influence decision-making. While women are under-represented in both local and national politics, this situation is gradually improving. In 1993 women held 26% of all elected positions on district and city councils, and 21% of the Members of Parliament were women. Only one of the 20 members of Cabinet was female. Under the new Mixed Member Proportional system of voting, the proportion of women MPs increased to 30% at the 1996 election, but there was still only one woman in Cabinet. In 1992 17% of mayors (including the mayors of New Zealand’s three largest cities) were women (MWA, 1994). After the 1995 elections 20% of the mayors of regional, district or city councils were women.

Rural women could be expected to be represented on a variety of decision-making bodies. These include regional councils, district councils, community boards, health authorities, producer and related boards and school boards of trustees. For the purposes of this report, an analysis was done of the national representation on five of these forums — district councils, health authorities, producer and related boards, school boards of trustees, and conservation boards.

For more in-depth information on the reasons women join these organisations, any barriers they may face and the contributions which they make, interviews were carried out with sixteen women on eleven district councils in three regions and with five women on the major producer and related boards.

4.2 Women in local government

For this section of the report the local authority election statistics compiled by the Department of Internal Affairs were used to provide a national overview of the pattern of representation by women over the last two elections. For a more in-depth study of the factors influencing women’s involvement on local authorities and the sorts of contributions they make, interviews were undertaken with women district councillors in three regions.

National patterns

The following two tables show the pattern of representation by women in district and city councils for the 1989 and 1992 elections. The tables show that women have comparatively higher levels of representation on city councils than district councils with all cities after the 1992 elections having a minimum of 20% women members and 5 of the 15 (33%) city councils having 40% or more women members. In comparison, 37% of district councils had fewer than 20% women members and only 9 of the 58 district councils (15.5%) had more than 40% female membership.

However, the figures illustrate a steady increase in the proportion of women members on district councils. In 1989 19% of these councils had 30% or more women members. By 1992 this had increased to 36% of district councils having 30% or more women members. In 1989 there were five district councils with no women members, and in 1992 this was reduced to one (Otorohanga).

In Southland, the area where field work was undertaken, the chairperson of the Regional Council is a woman, and the Regional Council has two other women as members. The Mayor of Southland District Council is a woman, and Gore District Council has three women. There are many women involved in community boards.

The proportions of women on district councils can be expected to continue to increase. In the majority of districts, voting patterns in both the 1989 and 1992 elections indicate that woman candidates were afforded a degree of preference. According to the 1992 provisional statistics, the number of districts in which the percentage of women elected to council exceeded the percentage of women candidates was 32. Of these, 21 were in the North Island and 11 were in the South Island. This represents 56.7% of the North Island district councils and 52% of those in the South Island.

Women’s representation in three regions

A total of 16 women councillors from three regions were interviewed - five from Otago, five from Northland and six from Waikato. There were also informal discussions with some of the women councillors involved. The regions were selected to cover the North and South Islands, a mix of land-use types and a range of socio-economic factors such as traditional family farming, integration of horticulture into traditional land-use areas, significant areas of Maori land, traditionally rich and poor farming areas, and areas where there is some diversity in land use.

Interview subjects were selected to incorporate rurally-based women who undertake a variety of activities. Five of the twenty-eight women councillors in the three regions were farmers, and all five were interviewed. Of the others, preference was given to women who lived in small towns (with populations less than 10,000). All had regular contact with rural communities and people in farming as friends, co-members of voluntary organisations and as ratepayers.

Membership patterns in the three selected regions

In the Otago region there are seven women councillors out of a total of 46 (15%). On the Community Boards for this region there are a total of 13 women members (including one who is also a district councillor). Five district councillors (one or two from each of the three district councils) were selected for interview.

In Waikato region there are 14 women councillors out of a total of 62 (27%). One district council (Otorohanga) has no women members and South Waikato has the highest membership with six (including the Deputy Mayor). There are 23 women community board members (including 3 who are also district councillors). Six district councillors (one or two from each of the four councils with women members) were selected for interview.

Northland region has seven women councillors out of a total of 32 (23%) and 12 Community Board members are women. The Far North Council has by far the highest representation of women with four of the eight district councillors being women (including the Mayor) and 10 women community board members (which includes one who is also a district councillor). Four district councillors (three from the Far North and the only woman member for Kaipara) were selected for interview. The Whangarei women members were excluded because they were both city-based.

In addition, one community board member from the Far North Council was interviewed to balance the numbers with the other regions.

The women members

The Otago councillors had lived in their area longer than the women in the other regions. The average time of residence for Otago was 40.8 years, compared with 35.6 years for Waikato members and 16 years for Northland. (Four of the Otago members and all of the Waikato members were over 50 years of age, while Northland had only one member in this age range.)

All the women interviewed had children, and family sizes ranged between one and five. Northland was the only region where councillors had school age children.

Four of the members interviewed lived on farms, and two others had done so as children. Three of these women classed themselves as ‘farmers’ and one as a ‘farmer’s wife’. Northland had the highest number of women members who were also in the paid workforce. The occupations of the five members concerned were nurse, partner in a retailing business, early childhood staff trainer, district nurse and farmer, reflecting the strong involvement of rural women in the personal and community service areas noted in the previous chapter.

Both Otago and Waikato had two members who were also in the paid workforce. Their occupations were farmer and radiographer (Otago) and farmer and owner/manager of a real-estate business (Waikato). In addition, both of these councils had one woman member who provided free administrative services for her husband’s business.

All the members were involved with other voluntary activities outside of their work on council and in the home. The Otago members had the heaviest involvement in voluntary activities with an average of five organisations per member. Northland members averaged four organisations per member and Waikato three. In Otago the most common types of activities were welfare organisations followed by hobbies and arts. In Northland the most common were local boards and trusts followed by sports, employment centres, arts and business-women’s organisations. For Waikato the most common organisations were church, national politics, Country Women’s Institute and community development organisations.

The election process

All but one of the women had won a seat at their first election. In five cases the woman concerned considered that being a woman was an advantage because they felt that in general people were looking for a change. They also felt that women residents had tended to favour women candidates. Two others thought being a woman had not been an issue. Both these women had high profiles in their communities and so felt they had already proven their ability to do the job.

The other nine candidates felt that, at least initially, being a woman had been a disadvantage. They had not been taken seriously, had encountered patronising behaviour from some men and an anti-woman stance from other male candidates. Many of these women felt they had to work much harder to gain credibility.

Apart from gender-based opposition, few of the women encountered difficulties or barriers during their campaigns. The two exceptions to this were difficulties funding the campaign and low self-confidence as a result of feeling ‘inexperienced’. Many said that they had really enjoyed the election process.

The principal motivating factors which lead women to stand for election were remarkably similar across all three regions. The most common factor was the encouragement of friends and associates. The Southland women councillors interviewed, in particular, commented on the value of support from a network of women as well as family and friends.

	Encouragement of friends and associates	9
	Dissatisfaction with the existing Council/system	6
	Previous committee experience (schools, Community Boards)	6
	Interest in local government	4
	Personal skills	2
	Couldn’t get employment/needed income	1

Participation on council

The women councillors were asked for their main areas of interest on council, what they most wanted to achieve as a councillor and how successfully they were achieving their objectives.

The topics which were of most interest to the women interviewed were very similar. The most common area was community development and support followed closely behind.

	Community services/support	8
	Finance	5
	Resource use planning/ environment	4
	Arts and culture	4
	Maori concerns	4
	Public works	3
	Community facilities (libraries, pensioner flats)	3
	Being a voice for the local (rural) area	2
	Employment schemes	1
	Improved sports facilities	1
	Equity issues	1

A major concern for almost all the women interviewed was the need for good quality public consultation and this was reflected in the numbers who said that improved consultation was one of their primary objectives as a councillor.

Another major area of interest was quality of life, cited by ten women. This included such things as more healthy, more caring communities, improved living environment, improved community facilities and increased employment.

The next most common objective (5 women) was sound financial management which was expressed in terms such as "getting value for money", "controlling expenditure", and "ensuring financial accountability".

Other objectives, of primary interest to one or two women, were improved relationships with the tangata whenua, a better deal for Maori land, giving isolated areas a voice, more integration between rural and urban populations, more efficient management of council, improved refuse disposal systems, and maintaining the respect and confidence of other councillors and the community.

Five of the women felt their effectiveness on their council was being limited by obstructions from other male councillors and senior staff. This was manifested in such things as their input being confined to "women’s issues", and lack of cooperation in providing information.

Social issues were regarded as "the girl’s job". Some women felt they were accepted by their male counterparts, even if they hadn’t been initially. Acceptance for one woman was expressed as "she’s one of us, she dags her own sheep!". However, many of the other women felt their rate of success was being hindered by factors outside their control such as the disruptions and difficulties arising from local authority amalgamations and the need for major public works. It is important to bear in mind that 10 (62%) of those interviewed were serving their first term on council which began in October 1992. Many felt that they had a lot to learn and were still gaining the necessary confidence and information needed to be as effective as they wished.

Although it was still early in the triennium, almost all of the women said they intended or would probably stand for re-election. Four felt they would probably not stand but this was due to age and feeling they had ‘done their dash’ rather than any dissatisfaction with their job as a councillor. Only one woman said she would definitely not be standing again and this was because of frustration due to the lack of cooperation of the (male) chief executive in providing her with the information she felt she needed to make proper decisions.

The contribution of women to local government politics

The women were asked if they thought that women played a unique or different role to that of men in local government politics. All considered that they did. While most replied "yes" others responded more emphatically eg: "there’s a huge difference", "definitely" and "absolutely". When asked to define what they thought this difference between male and female councillors was, the responses were remarkably similar across the three regions. The perceived differences are listed below. Women were seen to be:

More people orientated	8
Holding different perspectives/balancing role/voice for women	7
More commonsense, more practical	7
More consultative in their approach, prepared to listen/consider
alternatives/ not "so into winning"	6
Taking a wider view, more holistic approach to issues	4
More disciplined, more moderate in behaviour than men	4
More thorough, more conscientious	3
Better problem solvers ("men create difficulties")	3
More prepared to challenge information/not rubber stamp	2

Those women interviewed made it clear that sound financial management of current council activities is very important. However, for one woman the key difference which women bring to council decisions was that while men tend to ask "what’s it going to cost us?", women tend to look at the cost of not providing things.

Factors influencing the representation of women on district councils

As with most district councils, there were significantly fewer women councillors than men in the three regions canvassed. Women comprised much greater numbers on the Community Boards in those regions, and in some cases they were in the majority. From the interviews it was obvious that district council work places a heavy demand on the time of elected members. For rural members this is likely to be exacerbated by the distances many have to travel to attend council meetings, (especially with the amalgamated local authorities resulting from the restructuring of local government). Given the number of other demands on rural women, this is likely to be a major factor discouraging women from membership of this level of local government. In addition, many of the women councillors interviewed indicated a strong preference for dealing with ‘people’ and ‘community’ issues. The more grass-roots level of involvement which Community Boards offer is therefore likely to be more appealing to women.

The majority of women councillors interviewed were first term councillors and a number of them had come from community boards (or community councils as they were called prior to the restructuring of the local government system). If this trend continues, present membership patterns for women in local government indicate the likelihood of increasing numbers of women moving onto district councils over the next decade.

Discussion

The women district councillors were in no doubt that they made a substantial, valuable, and essential contribution to local government politics. While most had experienced some opposition based on gender during their campaigns and during the initial period on council, many found that they became accepted by their male counterparts as they proved their value at the decision-making table. For a few however, their ability to contribute continues to be inhibited by the sexist behaviour of male councillors and senior staff. In one case, this behaviour was sufficiently serious for the woman concerned to be seriously considering not seeking re-election.

Rural women candidates, at least during the canvasing period, are still subject to sexist opposition. Other factors which are likely to deter women (especially women with younger children) from seeking election to local government include:

• the much greater workloads involved with local government work since the restructuring of local government,
• the long distances required to attend meetings (it is not uncommon for members to have to travel 1.5 - 2 hours each way to attend meetings).

Those interviewed were very clear about the particular skills which women brought to local politics, and there was a remarkable consensus across the regions on most of these skills. Particular strengths were clear decision-making and problem solving skills, and public consultation. This recognition of the value of consultation is important with increasing legislative requirements and public demand for quality consultation. As one councillor said:

The whole job is about listening and responding to people, communication and interaction. Women know about these things.

And in the words of another:

the Council’s image can be enhanced if they use some of the ideas and experiences of women — particularly in relation to social activities and consultation.

From the interviews it became clear that the nature and composition of the demographic structure in rural areas was changing dramatically, as a result of both social and economic factors. While this is opening up new opportunities for rural communities, it is also at the heart of many of the issues raised by the district councillors. Factors leading to the changing structure of rural communities included:

• rural women working in towns;
• town women moving into rural areas (including those looking for cheaper housing);
• people with disabilities who were formerly housed in institutions, now being cared for by families in rural areas;
• return of ex-rural families and individuals (especially the young) who cannot find work in the towns; and
• farmers marrying town dwellers rather than neighbours as tended to be the traditional pattern.

In addition to these trends, one woman pointed out that there are two definite classes of farm women — the staff managers’ wives and the wives of the farm owners. According to her the managers’ wives:

are just there to look pretty. Some don’t even drive and they have a lot of trouble with the isolation. The farm owners’ wives are a different breed altogether. They are more in partnership with their husbands, more independent

.

The loss of services and facilities, unemployment and the need for farm women to seek work in towns to finance the farming operations were the most commonly raised concerns in all of the three regions.

4.3 Women on producer and other agricultural boards

In New Zealand women are poorly represented on agricultural industry governing bodies:

There have been only eight to ten women as directors [of producer boards and dairy companies] in New Zealand. But that’s over more than 100 years and 600 companies (Dr Fay Deane, retiring Northland Dairy deputy chairwoman and former chairwoman, quoted in Otago Daily Times, 1993).

In 1994 Hilary Webber was elected as the first female director of the New Zealand Dairy Group board. The chair of the Dairy Group was quoted in a newspaper article describing her success as ‘historic’ (McKee, 1994).

In 1993 there were 14 statutory producer boards and related organisations in New Zealand, five Animal Ethical Committees and four Raspberry Marketing Committees. Data provided by the Ministry of Agriculture shows that, in total there were 176 controlling members of these organisations, of which only 21 were women. Most of the boards had no women members, and the highest number on any one organisation was four (on the National Animal Ethics Advisory Committee). The highest proportion of women members was on the Plant Variety Rights (Roses) Advisory Committee where two of the four members (50%) were women.

These numbers are a slight increase on the 16 women who were members in 1991. Of the meat companies, only Alliance had women on the Board of Directors (2 of the 12 members). AFFCO had 16 members on its board, none of whom were women. As noted above, the NZ Dairy Group had one woman director from 1994.

The women members

Five of the 16 women statutory board members were selected for interviews. One of the women lived on a farm and another had been a grower for five years. Two had young families and all were heavily involved with other activities. Three had other directorships and two were very much involved with local community activities.

All the women were appointed rather than elected to their positions. Four were Ministerial appointments and one was appointed by her board after a rigorous selection process.

None of the women interviewed felt that being a woman had been a barrier to their appointment. All had proven track records or possessed particular skills that were needed on their particular board. Two were persuaded to accept appointment. Four had filled high-profile positions on other major organisations prior to their appointments.

The factors that motivated them to accept membership varied. In two cases it was a strong interest in customer and environmental issues and a wish to see these adequately addressed. For the three others it was to utilise their particular expertise to improve their board’s performance.

Their contribution to the boards

The women were asked what they wanted to achieve as members and how successful they thought they were in accomplishing those objectives. Some were still in their first year of office and therefore felt it was too early to comment on their level of success. Two other women thought they had been able to make significant contributions to date. These contributions were:

• bringing environmental issues into the debate;
• influencing the numbers of women being appointed to management positions (by asking questions about the numbers of women managers and how that compared to other similar organisations and by asking for reviews of compliance with EEO policies); and
• getting the board to take on new ideas.

One board member commented:

the farmer members always take a while to go with new ideas but in the end they will accept them because they respect my skills.

One member thought she had been able to make a few minor gains but was inhibited by the lack of resources provided to the board and the "inertia against change".

The sorts of qualities and skills which these members thought women could bring to such organisations were:

• having different perspectives, different priorities;
• tending to get a "gut feeling" when something is not right;
• helping ensure that women as consumers are recognised;
• being more up-front, tending to challenge and be more open (they are not playing hierarchical games);
• getting to the point more quickly;
• asking questions (men tend not to for fear of looking silly or ignorant);
• being less prepared to rubberstamp (women do their homework and investigate issues);
• bringing in the human factor, including recognising the pressures on farming communities;
• taking a wider view on issues, having the ability to synthesise across disciplines "because we have to juggle a lot of different parts of our lives".

The members were asked if they thought that women played a unique or different role to men on boards. All thought they did, although one was concerned not to over-generalise this statement.

Factors influencing womens’ participation on boards

One member pointed out that there is a fundamental difference between local government (which is there to represent a population) and agricultural boards which are there to manage an industry. She felt in the case of boards it was more important to have a balance of skills than a female/male balance.

In considering barriers to womens’ participation on boards, three of the members felt that male dominance of the boards and of the industry as a whole had become self-perpetuating.

	The present boards are male dominated, so are the agricultural sectors they are serving. The people they know tend to be men, so that’s who they ask when they need new members.
	Men have no interest in the skills women can bring to the board. Farmers are not promoting farming women — they still don’t recognise the contribution they are making to farm management.
	In rural NZ there is still a tremendous antipathy to women being involved in things outside the home.

Three other barriers were noted. One was the time commitment required, another (related somewhat tongue-in-cheek to time) was that women were just too busy to undertake all the activities needed to ‘curry the favour’ required. The third was the way in which the Women’s Nominations Service at the Ministry of Women’s Affairs was being used. According to one member "the Ministry is submitting women [who] are inappropriate". She felt the quality of the referrals was discrediting to women and to the process.

However, the members did note that once women gained a presence on the boards, they could open the doors for others. This was borne out by the personal experiences of two of the women.

Once a woman gets on the board she can promote other women onto boards just by making sure that women get a fair hearing and are not dismissed out of prejudice.

While the practice of appointing people to boards as a policy measure to reduce either gender or ethnicity imbalances has been criticised, it has also been very beneficial:

Women such as Jenny Morel and Daphne Rawstorne, who has sat on the New Zealand Post board since its inception, trace their first break to an approach from the Labour Government, which set up SOEs. Without it they might never have been noticed. For this reason Morel believes "patronage" can be a good thing (Smith, 1994).

Women in the article commented that securing their first appointment was the biggest hurdle they had to overcome. The election and nomination processes may also be proving a barrier to women. Kerrin Vautier, chair of the Institute of Economic Research and the only woman on the Fletcher Challenge Limited board, commented:

Male domination of boards is self-perpetuating to the extent that males think first of their male colleagues in nominating and appointing people to fill such vacancies as [they] arise (Smith, 1994).

In November of 1994 an article in Management reported that of the 316 directors who make up the boards of New Zealand’s top 40 companies, less than two percent are women. The article discussed the tendency of New Zealand boards to use informal processes and existing networks to select new directors, and commented:

The pool of directorial talent is likely to remain small if boards continue to fish in only one place. Leading international investigations, such as the one carried out by Britain’s Badbury Committee, underline the importance of formal recruitment processes in improving the quality of boards (Smith, 1994).

An article in the Dominion (28 May 1993) noted there had been a high number of nominations for positions on the Meat Board and Wool Board’s electoral committee. This committee is responsible for electing members for each board, monitoring the performance of the boards and reporting to producers. Of the 38 people nominated only one was a woman (from Southland). In six districts an election was not required because nominations did not exceed vacancies. In all cases, these positions were filled by men.

One Board member felt that a major issue for rural women was the need to achieve a greater level of involvement in the agricultural industry. Because their livelihood and wellbeing is dependent on it, they have a vested interest. She felt that if women don’t achieve a significant level of involvement they will feel powerless:

For them the industry is so much a central part of their lives.

In 1994 the magazine Paddocks to Parliament ran an article on a woman who has managed to secure a position on influential boards:

Nicola Shadbolt has recently been appointed to the Board of Transit NZ, and was also recently elected as a founding director of Agriculture NZ Ltd (the public company created by staff to purchase the national consultancy business Agriculture New Zealand, from MAF). This hard working women somehow manages a successful career, a young family, a home, and a farm (Millard, 1994).

As earlier and later sections in this report show, this sort of juggling of many different roles is a common feature in the lives of many rural and farm women.

4.4 Women on school boards of trustees

Overall, women have almost equal representation on school boards of trustees. In July 1993, 48% of all members on boards were women. Their representation was highest in primary schools (49%) and lowest (41%) in secondary schools (MWA, 1994).

The Ministry of Education has information on boards of trustee membership by electorate. This information was used to indicate the male and female representation in rural and urban electorates. There are 25 South Island electorates and 68 North Island electorates. As can be seen from the following table women have fared better in urban electorates in both the North and South Islands. Women hold 50% or more of the membership in 26% of the North Island urban electorates and 25% of the South Island urban electorates compared with only 11.5% of the North Island rural electorates and 23% of the South Island rural electorates.

In total there are 39 rural electorates and of these 33 (84.6%) have between 40% and 49% women members on their school boards of trustees. Six (15.4%) of the rural electorates have between 50% and 59% female membership, compared with 26% of the urban electorates.

It is interesting to note that women are more likely to be appointed as principals of small rural primary schools than larger urban primary schools. A draft report prepared by the

Principals’ Federation shows that 54% of appointments to sole charge and two-teacher schools (mainly rural) are female. However, for larger schools only 38% of the appointments were of women. The Principals’ Federation report also showed that women who gain experience as principals in rural schools "were not going on to principal’s position in larger schools" (Sunday Times 30 May 1993 and personal comm, Renetta Dennis).

4.5 Women on health authorities

Figures on women’s participation at local government level have been recorded since 1959. In the recent history of local management and delivery of health services, there have been locally elected hospital boards, then later area health boards. Area health boards show a steady increase in the proportions of women members over the 30 years until 1989, from 21 percent to 53 percent.

The 1986 election saw the height of success for women on area health boards as not only had they gained election to 50% of available seats but almost a third of boards elected women chairpersons .

As the opposite table shows, by 1989 the majority of boards had 50% or more women members. The average percentage of female membership on boards across the country was 53% with a higher average in the North Island (55%) than in the South Island (49%).

The situation has changed dramatically with the restructuring of the health system as the elected area health authorities were replaced by Government appointed crown health enterprises and regional health authorities. The average percentage of women members on crown health enterprises establishment boards is 25% and only one of these organisations is chaired by a woman. The table below illustrates the percentage distribution of women members across the CHEs.

The drop in the percentage of women represented on CHEs (compared to those previously on area health boards) cannot be attributed to a lack of suitable and available women. To assist in the selection of members the Ministry of Women’s Affairs’ Nominations Service provided the National Interim Provider Board with the curricula vitae of 74 appropriately qualified and experienced women. These names were additional to the 41 names which had previously been provided for the crown health enterprise advisory committees and the regional health authorities. In addition, several non-government organisations (such as the National Council of Women and the Womens’ Electoral Lobby) also forwarded names of women they considered suitable.

On all of the four regional health authorities, women members are also in the minority. These members are also appointed by the Minister of Health. In three of these organisations women hold 43% of the seats (three out of seven). On the other (Midlands) women comprise 28.5% of the membership holding two of the available 7 seats.

4.6 Women on conservation boards

There are 17 conservation boards throughout New Zealand. When the first regional conservation boards were appointed in 1990 five of the 17 (29.4%) were chaired by women. Of 204 board members, 81 were women (39.7%). In 1993 the Department of Conservation developed a pro-active policy for ensuring good representation of women (because of suffrage celebrations) and Maori (because it was the International Year of Indigenous Peoples). In 1994, however, only three of the 17 boards were chaired by women (17.6%), and 63 of the 172 board members were female (36.6%). The national body (the New Zealand Conservation Authority) had nine male and three female members.

Many women in Southland, women on local authorities, and the 400 women who attended the Women’s Division Federated Farmers 1993 annual conference showed a strong interest in environmental, resource management and landcare practices. Women’s membership on conservation boards may well be an important formal step for women’s involvement in environmental issues to be pursued.

4.7 Summary

This report analysed the national representation of women on different types of decision making bodies - district councils, health authorities, producer and related boards, school boards of trustees and conservation boards.

Nationally women have higher levels of representation on city councils than district councils, although district council representation is increasing. In 1993 the Otago region had seven women councillors out of a total of 46. In the Waikato region there were 14 women councillors out of a total of 62. The Northland region had seven women councillors out of a total of 32.

The women district councillors interviewed for this report were in no doubt that they made a substantial contribution to local government politics. Most had experienced some opposition based on gender during their campaigns and during the initial period on council. For a few their ability to contribute continues to be inhibited by the sexist behaviour of male councillors and senior staff. Other factors which are likely to deter women from seeking election to local government include the greater workloads involved with local government work since the restructuring of local government, and the long distances required to attend meetings.

Those interviewed were very clear about the particular skills which women brought to local politics, and there was a remarkable consensus across the regions on most of these skills. Particular strengths were clear decision-making and problem solving skills, and public consultation. This recognition of the value of consultation is important with increasing legislative requirements and public demand for quality consultation.

Despite their increasing involvement in the agricultural sector, women are poorly represented on agricultural industry governing bodies. The producer board members interviewed all thought that women played a unique or different role to men, and that the difference was positive. In considering barriers to womens participation on boards, three of the members felt that male dominance of the boards and of the industry as a whole had become self-perpetuating. One woman commented that there is still very strong antipathy to women moving outside the home. Government appointments are therefore very important as a means of overcoming the male dominance of producer boards.

Unlike the councils and industry boards, women have almost equal representation on school boards of trustees. This is not surprising, as these boards would be considered the least influential and least powerful of those discussed here. In addition, women are often expected to participate when children are involved.

Area health boards had shown a steady increase in the proportion of women members in the 30 years until 1989, from 21 percent to 53 percent. This situation has changed dramatically with the restructuring of the health system, and a change from elected bodies to appointed bodies. On average only 25% of crown health enterprise board members are female. Only one of the CHE boards is chaired by a woman. There are now proportionately fewer women on conservation boards than there were in 1990.

Women’s representation on producer and other boards could be improved if boards were encouraged to use formal processes to select new members and directors. The appointment of women to boards as a deliberate policy measure has been criticised, but can be a valuable step in the right direction. Once women gain a presence on boards they can facilitate the way for others. Given the new perspectives and insights women can bring to boards, their presence is important.

Contact for Enquiries

Rural Affairs Coordinator
Sector Performance Policy
MAF Policy
Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry
PO Box 2526
Wellington
NEW ZEALAND

Phone: +64 4 894 0675
Fax: +64 4 4 894 0745
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