Fulfilling potential through fairness and justice

This year, 125 years of Women’s Suffrage is being celebrated in New Zealand and acknowledged internationally. Many groups across our wider community – including this University – are looking at where we have come from, evaluating where we are now, and thinking about what we need to do to ensure we develop in a way that honours the women who have gone before.

In the early days of the University of Auckland, gender inequity was stark. Sexism was ubiquitous; it was evident in attitudes and behaviour to women – in the home, at work and in society.

It created barriers to participation and progress in university study and employment. Although one of the pernicious features of sexism, sexual harassment, was not even named until feminists in the 1970s coined the term, it was a common feature of women’s lives.

As society changed, so did gender issues and priorities: by the 1960s there was increasing activism against discrimination, including gender discrimination. While highly-educated, academic Pakeha women were better represented in universities, there were still significant barriers that other women, and indeed other groups, encountered.

Our current equity work benchmarks well for its wide range of initiatives, against comparable international universities, including from the Asia Pacific Rim Universities (APRU).

The University must continue to consider all issues that impact women, including family violence and abuse, a disproportionate load of unpaid work, and fertility issues. The latter still includes access to contraception and termination but now also incorporates the increasing need for and use of assisted reproductive technology.

It is also important to ensure that diverse experiences – like parenting or caring for an aged relative – don't disadvantage people who haven’t had a linear career trajectory.

Although this year's anniversary focuses on equity for women, our equity mandate is wider. The University is committed to a safe, inclusive and equitable study and work environment to enable all people to achieve their potential.

Equity initiatives, policies and programmes are embedded across the University. They include partnerships with Maori and work with and for equity groups including Pasifika, people with disabilities, members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex (LGBTI) communities, people from refugee backgrounds, and low socio-economic students.

During the anniversary of women’s suffrage we celebrate the gender equity achievements of generations of students and staff. Our University will best honour their legacy by remaining aspirational.

In 2019 each faculty and service division will include gender equity goals in their annual plans.

I look forward to seeing dramatic equity progress in coming years.