Global rankings and domestic realities: Women, work and policy in Australia and New Zealand

At the beginning of the 1990s, according to the UN gender-sensitive Human Development Index, Australia was ranked sixth and New Zealand was eighth. A decade later, Australia ranked second while New Zealand ranked seventeenth. In other words, according to the United Nations, gender equality is more advanced in Australia than New Zealand. Yet a closer look reveals that in recent years New Zealand's public policy developments have been significantly more ‘woman-friendly’ than has been the case in Australia. In this article we seek to explain this dissonance between the global rankings and the policy reality. We review the similarities and differences in the nature of women's labour market participation and the way Australian and New Zealand national governments have attempted to support that participation. While the policy environment in both Australia and New Zealand is dominated by discourses associated with free-market activity and global competitiveness, there are significant differences in the positions held by the Labour government in New Zealand and the (conservative) Coalition government in Australia around women's rights. We conclude that the UN ranking reflects only part of the story around women's equality in Australia and New Zealand. While a strong economy can facilitate women's economic well-being, this does not equate with a commitment to gender equality. A range of supportive policy mechanisms are needed to continue to ensure that well-being, including wage-setting mechanisms that incorporate a commitment to pay equity. In addition, it is likely that because of the time lag, current policy developments around labour market (de)regulation are yet to have an impact on UNDP calculations.