‘Dismal’ female record

Press, 9 June 1980, Page 5

‘Dismal’ female record

PA Wellington New Zealand’s rate of in■orporating women into de-•ision-making roles is One >f the world’s most dismal, iccording to the president of he International Council of ■Vomen, Dame Miriam Dell. Speaking to the monthly uncheon meeting of the Wellington Society of Xccountants, Dame Miriam :aid that New Zealand had no women as High Court judges, only one female Dis-

trict Court judge, no female heads of Government departments, no female Cabinet Ministers, no female chairman of a board of directors on a big New Zealand company, no female general managers of big companies, and no female heads of financial institutions.

“In other words, there is a very low level of female participation in decisions which affect all our lives,” she said.

Dame Miriam said that the main constraints on female participation were the lack of adequate child-care facilities, the limiting nature of the occupations that women found themselves in, the conditions of employment which assumed that family life was the responsibility of females only, the inflexible nature of work patterns, protective legislation against job opportunities, and the concept that the work-force was male.