Action for women in Public Service

Press, 4 February 1987, Page 28

Action for women in Public Service

By

OLIVER RIDDELL

in Wellington

A positive action programme for women has been introduced by the State Services Commission. The Equality Management Programme for Women Public Servants follows up the Government’s pre-1984 General Election promise that it would have affirmative action programmes within the public sector aimed at the active promotion of women at all levels. It is the intention of the programme to accelerate the advancement of women officers who have aspirations and the potential for higher duties within the Public Service.

The programme is mainly to enable women

to benefit from changing attitudes and beliefs about the role of women in the Public Service. It is aimed initially at 800 women in the middle-management level of the Public Service. There will be enhanced service for this target group, and efforts made for them will flow to other women public servants later. The State Services Commission said that in the area of management women were not progressing at the same rate of promotion as men. In spite of some recent signs that women were being recognised for their skills, there were still too few women in managerial and decision-making roles. The programme was one of action, not of

research, the commission said. Analytical explanations were plentiful but the steps to remedy the situation were not. For example, there had been only one woman earning more than $65,000 on March 31, 1986, compared with 106 men. Yet the gender ratio in the Public Service was two men for every woman — 42,449 and 27,791 respectively. The programme sought to consolidate women’s chances of advancement by providing fuller access to four areas — vocational training, choices of work patterns, availability of support systems, and quality of career development. The programme was for all women, the commission said.