ABSTRACT
This chapter concentrates on the Employment Opportunity (EEO) outcomes for New Zealand women. New Zealand operates two systems for implementing EEO. The first is a legislative framework that obliges public sector employers to address EEO; the second is a voluntary framework for private sector employers. Women and girls have made significant gains in educational participation and achievement in New Zealand over the past three decades. The introduction of maternity leave, parental leave, paid parental leave, the creation of more part-time employment and improved child care facilities, has enabled more New Zealand women to return to paid employment after having children. A comparative study of the 2001 and 2006 New Zealand Census data showed growth in full-time work for working mothers between 2001 and 2006. The political economy of New Zealand remains entrenched in a liberal philosophy strongly committed to tenets of atomized individualism and self-help.
