On 25 September 2023, National Council of Women of New Zealand President Dr Suzanne Manning was joined by Minister for Women Hon Jan Tinetti, Equal Employment Opportunities Commissioner Saunoamaali’i Dr Karanina Sumeo, and Emanuel Kalafatelis, Managing Partner at Research New Zealand, to launch the fourth survey in the series of Gender Attitudes NZ Surveys. See the recording of the online event on the NCWNZ YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2PisTqmZ0ro.

Gender Equal NZ, led by The National Council of Women of NZ – Te Kaunihera Wāhine o Aoteaora, conducted Gender Attitudes Surveys in partnership with Research NZ, in 2017, 2019, 2021 and 2023. Read more about this in the NCWNZ News article by Kerri Dupont: https://www.ncwnz.org.nz/2023_gender_attitudes_survey

The following summary of the findings is offered by ResearchNZ's Emanuel Kalafatelis:

In the four years since 2019, a significantly higher percentage of respondents believe that gender equality has "for the most part been achieved" (from 42% to 48% in 2023). While this is a notable result, it also means that one-in-every two respondents do not believe it’s been achieved, or it is still in progress. This is especially the opinion of female respondents; 60% of whom believe gender equality has not "for the most part been achieved" or is still in progress (compared with 43% of male respondents).

In fact, as was the case in 2021 and compared with male respondents, female respondents are less impressed with the current status quo. For example, women are significantly:

• Less likely than male respondents to believe that we’re making "good progress" towards gender equality.
• More likely to state that "women generally" are disadvantaged by gender inequality than any other group in the population.
• More likely to state that women are targeted by online harassment and that rape myths persist.

Taken as a whole, this latest survey confirms that there is still a significant way to go before we can genuinely say that gender equality in Aotearoa New Zealand has been achieved. 

To see more information about all four surveys, visit the Gender Equal NZ website. You can download the .PDF file of the full 2023 Gender Attitudes Survey report here.

To read more articles from The Circular (September-October 2023) issue 643, click on the tag below.