Thirty students from the University of Minnesota Carlson School of Management together with two academic staff and two administrators visited New Zealand early in January.

The students were enrolled in a course entitled "IBUS 3019: Striving for Equity in International Business" which examines equality, leadership and global differences using business history as well as current case studies. The students seek to answer why the United States still ranks poorly in gender equality and leadership in business, and why countries like New Zealand, Iceland and Rwanda are achieving much better results.

NCWNZ were invited to address the class, which included 15 male students. This happened on Wednesday 4 January 2023. Māori Women’s Welfare League addressed the students the next day.

Ashlee Metcalfe and Harita Gandhi-Kashyap spoke of the Wellington Branch activities with young women and their Radio programme Get Woke Wellington on Wellington Access Radio. The students are to be interviewed for the radio programme.

Hellen Swales from BPWNZ explained the Women Empowerment principles (WEPs) and their measurement. Beryl Anderson outlined the history of NCWNZ and the Gender Attitudes Survey. Hellen and Beryl talked of the advocacy work NCWNZ and BPWNZ undertake.

From Wellington, the students travelled to Christchurch where they were visiting Kate Sheppard House and then on to Dunedin. We have heard that a number of students got white camellia tattoos.

The University has indicated that the course is likely to plan another trip for next year, even though the timing means they don’t get to see some things like He Tohu because of summer closures.

To read more articles from The Circular (Jan-Feb 2023) issue 639, click on the tag below.