Tēnā tātou katoa,

A different face for you in this edition of The Circular as I step in to kōrero for our President, Suzanne.

My name is Katie Thomas and I am the current Aspiring Board Member for NCWNZ. I have been involved in a number of network led organisations across the public sector for a decade now, all with a focus on working towards gender equality in Aoteroa New Zealand so playing a role within NCWNZ is a natural fit for me! It was a huge honour to be asked to put my name forward for this role in 2023 and I have been warmly welcomed into the fold by my fellow Board Members as well as the amazing volunteers from our Hubs and Branches that I have been able to meet and work with so far. I look forward to engaging with many more of our volunteers as we work together in the future.

The Education Action Hub recently received a paper forwarded from the International Council of Women (ICW). The paper was written by Young-Ae Ha PhD  who is the Education Advisor of ICW and professor at Humanitas College of Kyung Hee University of Korea.

Dr Young-Ae Ha urged us to study the ideologies of Young Seek Chou (1921-2016) of Korea and Daisaku Ikeda (1928-2023) of Japan. Both men founded universities in their respective countries, advocating the importance of “education for human society and peace.”

This International Women's Day 2024, the Wellington Branch of the National Council of Women NZ held the Gender Equal NZ Speaker Series. The GENZ Conf was a one-day virtual event for rangatahi to design their gender equal future for Aotearoa and think about how to achieve it.

A screenshot from the Gender Equal NZ Speaker Series: IWD 2024 recording.

Members of the New Zealand delegation before the CSW68 closing ceremony.

CSW68 was a jam-packed, eye-opening, invaluable opportunity to learn about the complexities of foreign policy, the inner workings of the United Nations, and how it all intersects with the global mission to achieve gender equality.

A key highlight for Wellington Branch President Aleisha Amohia, the NGO delegate to the New Zealand Government delegation for CSW68, was having quality time and conversation with the talented, passionate NGO representatives from Aotearoa. It was also a blessing to spend so much time in the magic of New York City.

The International Action Hub created a series of messages to be sent out to the NCWNZ Communications Team as well as the other Action Hubs so that it could be shared on social media in celebration of International Women's Day 2024. The theme this year was "Invest in women: Accelerate progress."

The Hub convenor, Eva Hartshorn-Sanders worked with an illustrator to create images that show girls and women at different stages of life and how they are impacted by poverty. The Hub hoped that the messages would encourage people to understand why investing in women and women’s organisations is important.

On Wednesday 6 March, two days before International Women’s Day, the Wellington Branch of the United Nations Association of New Zealand (UNA-NZ) organised a panel discussion on the UN IWD theme of “Count her in: Invest in women. Accelerate progress.” The panel consisted of Suzanne Manning, NCWNZ President, Natasha Jolly (Former UN worker and women’s rights researcher) and Joy Dunsheath (UNA-NZ).

Suzanne talked about the importance of allies to accelerate progress towards gender equality. Discrimination and inequality occur when some groups hold power to serve their own needs; those groups need to recognise the problem and share the power. This means we need all genders to work together as allies for gender equality. Suffrage in 1893 would not have been achieved if male allies had not voted in favour of the Bill. Suzanne then shared results from the 2023 Gender Attitudes Survey which showed the difference in perspectives between women and men on how well we are doing on achieving gender equality in Aotearoa New Zealand. To accelerate progress, we need men to acknowledge the true extent of the problem. She also shared some comments on the very last report the World Bank released. For the first time, they considered violence against women and access to childcare to determine the gender pay gap. The result is striking: the gender pay gap is even worse when we consider this feature.

On Monday 11 March 2024, Suzanne Manning (President of NCWNZ) and Mathilde Le Goff (Board administrator intern) attended a roundtable discussion with Dr Natalia Kanem, Executive Director of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and United Nations Under-Secretary-General.

UNFPA is the United Nations sexual and reproductive health agency. Their mission is to deliver a world where every pregnancy is wanted, every childbirth is safe and every young person's potential is fulfilled. They work with partners in more than 150 countries to provide access to a wide range of sexual and reproductive health services. The goal of this agency is therefore to end unmet need for family planning, preventable maternal death and gender-based violence and harmful practices including child marriages and female genital mutilation by 2030.

Two members of the Manukau Branch of NCW attended the International Women's Day multicultural event on 8 March 2024 held by the Filipino alliance of women's organisations called Gabriela Aotearoa. The event was part of the "One Billion Rising" celebration for 2024. According to their website: "We rise through dance to express joy and community and celebrate the fact that we have not been defeated by violence [against women]. We rise to show we are determined to create a new kind of consciousness – one where violence will be resisted until it is unthinkable."

Jean Fuller
6 September 1934 – 5 March 2024

Born in Auckland, Jean grew up on a farm in Tuakau. Attending Auckland University, Jean graduated with an MA in English then taught at Hamilton Girl’s High School. With her husband Geoff, Jean settled in Karori where they had two boys. Once they had grown up, Jean returned to the workforce. Jean embraced computer technology at a time when most people didn’t want to know how to use them, learning computer programming in her early 50s and worked as a database/computer management assistant at the US Information Service from 1988-1999. She always shared her technical ability and knowledge with others, supporting her husband in the writing of legal texts and maintaining the online access to them.

Jean held a number of roles with the NZ Federation of Graduate Women, including National Secretary, Wellington newsletter editor, and supporting academic dress. She joined Parliamentary Watch Committee (PWC) in 2004, convening it from 2010-2014. In this role she provided training to NCWNZ’s Standing Committee Conveners and Board Members. Jean documented processes in a user-friendly manner, to ensure everyone understood everything. Her notes are still used today. Jean was superb at managing the interface between NCWNZ and Parliament, ensuring high quality submissions were presented on behalf of women.