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New Zealand Women Today; How Close Is New Zealand to Conforming to CEDAW and Achieving Substantive Equality?

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New Zealand Women Today; How Close Is New Zealand to Conforming to CEDAW and Achieving Substantive Equality? http://researchcommons.waikato.ac.nz/ Research Commons at the University of Waikato Copyright Statement: The digital copy of this thesis is protected by the Copyright Act 1994 (New Zealand). The thesis may be consulted by you, provided you comply with the provisions of the Act and the following conditions of use: Any use you make of these documents or images must be for research or private study purposes only, and you may not make them available to any other person. Authors control the copyright of their thesis. You will recognise the author’s right to be identified as the author of the thesis, and due acknowledgement will be made to the author where appropriate. You will obtain the author’s permission before publishing any material from the thesis. A HISTORICAL ANALYSIS OF THE STATUS OF WOMEN IN NEW ZEALAND: HAS CEDAW HAD AN IMPACT? A Thesis Submitted in Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Degree Of A Master of Laws At The University of Waikato By Heidi Jones Year of Submission: 2013 Abstract This thesis analyses the current and historical status of women in New Zealand for the purpose of discovering why full equality between men and women has not yet been achieved. This object will be accomplished by analysing, comparing and contrasting the international Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (“CEDAW”) with changes successive New Zealand Governments have made to the status of women so as to discover the degree of intent such Governments have had to implement equality. This thesis is in chronological order, beginning from an analysis of the creation of the status of women dating pre 1300 B.C., detailing degradations, changes and improvements in the status up until 2012 A.D. The main divisions are based on general periods of importance for women; chapter one investigates how the secondary status of women originated and evolved in ancient eras. Chapter two examines the significant international and domestic women’s rights movements during the mid-twentieth century. Chapter three discusses the importance of an international instrument as a comparative tool; illustrated by CEDAW’s contrast to the New Zealand status of women during the mid-1980s. Chapter four analyses the Governmental changes made over the next quarter century to discover whether New Zealand was moving closer towards a reflection of the international instrument. Chapter five evaluates the contemporary status of women in New Zealand; and finally, chapter six details recommendations for the State with the intention of raising the status of women to full equality. The conclusions reached are, first; that the current status of women in New Zealand is not one of equality with men because their original status was seen as secondary. Therefore the goal of attaining equal (formal) legal rights to gain equality is not appropriate as it merely gives women what were considered “men’s rights” without giving them the opportunity to practice them in full equality. Secondly; the use of CEDAW as a comparative instrument is shown to provide a more effective strategy of gaining equality that does not always involve giving women gender-neutral “men’s rights” but needs to be given greater power to be proved effective. The comparison with an instrument that provides for perfect equality contributes to a thorough understanding of the status of women in New Zealand as the comparison provides a clear and objective view of why the original premise that formal rights would achieve substantive equality was an incorrect supposition. The thesis also contributes alternative action to be undertaken by the Government to effectively achieve equality for women. ii Acknowledgements I would first like to thank Margaret Wilson, Professor at Te Piringa – Faculty of Law at the University of Waikato, for her vital role as supervisor in the thesis paper process. Without her advice, knowledge and patience, this thesis would not exist. I also wish to express my gratitude to Ben Gilbert and Dee Jones for their insight, guidance, comments and suggestions during this whole process. In addition, they reviewed and edited my work multiple times for which I am eternally grateful. Without their efforts, this thesis would be completely unintelligible. iii Table of Contents Title Page i Abstract ii Preface and Acknowledgements iii Table of Contents iv List of Abbreviations 1 Text of Thesis 3 Introduction: A Historical Analysis of the Status of Women in New Zealand: Has CEDAW had an Impact? 3 Part I: Purpose and Aims of Thesis 3 Part II: Relevance and Impact on New Zealand Today 6 Part III: Scope of Thesis 6 Part IV: Overview of Chapters 7 Chapter 1: Historical Overview of the Development of the Status of Women (1300 B.C. – 1970 A.D.) 11 Part I: Ancient History 12 Part II: The Beginnings of Formalised Legality 16 Part III: Status Questioned – 19th Century Britain 19 Part IV: The Beginning of New Zealand Women’s Rights 24 Conclusion 31 Chapter 2: Evolution of Modern Legislative Equality in New Zealand During the Mid-Twentieth Century: National and International Influences 33 iv Part I: The First International Women’s Conference 37 Part II: The Second World Conference 52 Part III: The Third World Conference 58 Conclusion 64 Chapter 3: The International Model: CEDAW and the Optional Protocol 67 Part I: CEDAW: Rights and Obligations 69 Part II: The Benefits and Faults of CEDAW 83 Part III: CEDAW: The Optional Protocol 91 Conclusion 94 Chapter 4: The Transition; Recent Historical Changes to the Status of Women and the Impact of CEDAW in New Zealand since Ratification 97 Part I: The Second CEDAW Report 98 Part II: The Third and Fourth (Combined) CEDAW Report 105 Part III: The Fifth CEDAW Report 110 Part IV: The Sixth CEDAW Report 116 Conclusion 122 Chapter 5: New Zealand Women Today; How Close is New Zealand to Conforming to CEDAW and Achieving Substantive Equality? 124 Part I: Political Equality 125 Part II: Public/Economic Equality 132 Part III: Private Equality 145 Conclusion 153 v Chapter 6: Conclusions and Recommendations 155 Part I: Conclusion of Chapters One through Four 155 Part II: Conclusion of Chapter Five and New Zealand’s International Ranking 159 Part III: Recommendations – Where to From Here? 162 Conclusion 179 Bibliography 181 Primary Sources: 181 Table of Statutes 181 Table of Cases 184 Table of Treaties 185 Secondary Sources: 188 Books and Book Chapters 188 Articles 191 Parliamentary and Government Materials 198 Reports and Meeting Records 201 Dissertations and Theses 206 Internet Resources 206 Seminars and Speeches 214 News Articles 215 Other Resources 216 vi List of Abbreviations APHR New Zealand Action Plan for Human Rights APW Action Plan for New Zealand Women CEDAW Convention on the Elimination of All forms of Discrimination Against Women Commission Commission on the Status of Women Committee Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women CTU New Zealand Council of Trade Unions DEDAW Declaration on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women DHB District Health Board ECOSOC Economic and Social Council ECE Early Childhood Education EEU Pay and Employment Equity Unit EEO Equal Employment Opportunities Program ERA Employment Relations Authority GDP Gross Domestic Product GST Goods and Services Tax HDI Human Development Index HIV Human Immunodeficiency Virus HRC Human Rights Commission INSTRAW International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women 1 IWC International Women’s Conference Ministry Ministry of Women’s Affairs MMP Mixed Member Proportional NCEA National Certificate of Educational Achievement NCW National Council of Women NCWNZ National Council of Women New Zealand NGO Non-Governmental Organization NZBORA New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990 OECD Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development PPL Paid Parental Leave UN United Nations UNIFEM United Nations Fund for Women 2 Introduction A Historical Analysis of the Status of Women in New Zealand: Has CEDAW had an Impact? Part I: Purpose and Aims of Thesis The subject of women’s rights in New Zealand has been extensively discussed in numerous forums over the years, including those that are international, in Parliament, Government and the judiciary, by academics and philosophers, in secondary and tertiary education and in the media. One needs only type the words into an online search engine to discover a plethora of information on its history and current position. However, as much of the focus has been merely on women’s “rights”, the scope of the topic and its conclusions have been somewhat limited. The first reason for these limited conclusions lies in the examination of “women’s rights” as a subject. “Women’s rights” are defined as: “the effort to secure equal rights for women and to remove gender discrimination from laws, institutions and behavioural patterns.”1 Securing equal rights and removing discrimination from laws indicates that it is necessary for women to ‘catch up’ to a level of rights previously prescribed by others. “Others” in this case, are men. Using this logic, “women’s rights” is therefore the struggle for women to catch up to or gain “men’s rights.” The primary instance of this in New Zealand is women’s suffrage in 1893, in which women gained the right to vote in the same capacity as men.2 However, the premise that women need men’s rights to attain an equal society is flawed. After suffrage, women gained equal legal rights to the 1 Farlex “Define: Women’s Rights” The Legal Dictionary http://legal- dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/Women's+Rights. 2 New Zealand History Online “New Zealand Women and the Vote” Ministry for Culture and Heritage http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/politics/womens-suffrage. 3 point that legislation is currently gender neutral3 and there is no difference between the capacity of women and men.
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