When not fighting fires she’s playing rugby – NZ women have moved onâ€Â

Rochelle Martin could well be rostered to work on Labour Day. Maybe there’s an irony in that somewhere.

As a senior firefighter she’s part of an emergency service that is always available, 24/7. Fires, car crashes, floods and hazardous chemical incidents do not pick their times to occur.

As a top New Zealand rugby player, a member of the highly successful Black Ferns, Rochelle was the first woman ever to make the New Zealand Fire Service’s sports roll of honour. It has pride of place in the boardroom at national headquarters in Wellington.

Rochelle also features in a Fire Service recruitment campaign, on posters and talking on a DVD, saying she never regretted joining the service and had certainly never felt treated any differently as a woman in what remains a male dominated role.

Successful firefighter and rugby player, Rochelle Martin stands as an incredible example of how far New Zealand women have come in 40 years.

But she doesn’t see herself as a trail-blazer, after all there are 54 female career (paid) firefighters in New Zealand, out of a total force of about 1,600 career firefighters. This compares to around nine to 12 or so females a few short years ago.

Women like Rochelle prove that huge gains have been made in women’s employment in the last 40 years. As Labour Day looms, the Department of Labour felt it timely to use the opportunity to pay tribute to this success. Particularly the contribution made by the National Advisory Council on the Employment of Women (NACEW), set up 40 years ago.

“Over those 40 years women’s participation in the workforce has nearly doubled, and more and more women have moved into non traditional roles,” said acting Secretary of Labour Graham Fortune.

NACEW held its first meeting in 1967, and celebrated its anniversary last month on Suffrage Day, September 19.

“We celebrated and acknowledged those that have contributed to women’s employment issues over this period,” said NACEW chair Pauline Winter. “But we also want to keep a strong focus on the future work environment to make sure women have a fair deal at work and continue to make informed employment choices.”

NACEW has helped promote the changes that have given women such differing lives, said Ms Winter. At the same time there have been other changes such as new technology, the growth of the tertiary sector, demographic changes and the creation of jobs that were not even imagined 40 years ago.

“We still have a long way to go, though”, said Ms Winter, “to ensure that all women have equal opportunities. For example, Maori and Pacific women have high rates of unemployment relative to other women, and many of these women are concentrated on low paid, low skilled jobs.

“Maori and Pacific women who are ambitious, skilled and entrepreneurial exist as role models but are often invisible, especially to girls at school.” She said.

It is a concern that despite the growth in women’s employment rates, many occupations remain segregated by gender.

“However it’s heartening that work traditionally done by women is having greater value assigned to it – the recent wages rises won by nurses and teachers is a sign of this. But we still need to do more. Cleaners and care workers are among some of the lowest paid workers in the country.”

“NACEW’s goals for the future are vital, not just for women’s work and their work-life balance, but to the quality of life for all New Zealanders, young and old, male and female.”

NACEW’s goals are:

Better work-life balance, and more equal sharing of care for children and elders by men and women
Quality flexible work across all industries and occupations
Pay equity and pathways that reduce gender segregation in occupations
Learning and training opportunities available throughout life
NACEW’s role is to:

advise the Minister of Labour on matters referred by him/her concerning the employment of women
express views and make recommendations as appropriate to the Minister of Labour on matters relating to the employment of women
make representations or submissions as appropriate to public bodies such as Commissions of Inquiry subject to the approval of the Minister; and
promote the dissemination of information on the employment of women in New Zealand and overseas. More information about NACEW is at www.nacew.govt.nz  
In a Nutshell

1967
2007

36.6 percent of women were in the workforce
61.8 percent of women are in the workforce

20.6 of women worked part time compared to 1.4 percent of men
34.8 percent of women worked part time compared to 10.4 percent of men

300 childcare centres catering for 6000 children*
1842 education and care centres for 86,059 children

11.3% of working women were self employed**
16.6% of employed women were self-employed and they comprised 36% of all self-employed


The percentage of married women in the work force increased from:

3.5% in 1926
To 12.9% in 1956
To 26% in 1971
* Data is from 1970 – closest available
** Data is from the 1966 Census