"Second Class Citizens"?: Researching the Position of General Staff Women in New Zealand Universities

Abstract

Historically, women in the workforce in New Zealand, like their counterparts in many other countries, have been disadvantaged vis-a-vis their male peers. They have been concentrated in relatively few (mostly low-pay) jobs, in lower rather than higher positions in occupations with promotional structures, and/or have been paid less than men for doing the same work. Even fairly recent studies of working conditions - in, for example, the banking industry (Neale, 1984), the Department of Social Welfare (Burns, Rutherford, Neale and Searancke, 1987), the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (Warren, 1988), and the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries (Green, 1991) - document the persistence of these inequities. Women in certain minority groups (for example, Maori women, women with physical disabilities) have tended to be particularly disenfranchised in these respects (National Advisory Council on the Employment of Women, 1990).