Green, feminist and pregnant: Meet New Zealand's Minister for Women

Julie Genter is running for leadership of New Zealand's Green Party. She's also the country's Minister for Women and Associate Health Minister, as well as the Associate Transport Minister in Jacinda Ardern's new coalition cabinet. And she's just announced that she's pregnant.

She's widely known as an avid cyclist and environmentalist, and has described herself as a "full-time feminist".

We asked her what she hopes to achieve in her time in government across these roles, and what is driving her to take on so much. Her number one priority, she says, is closing the gender pay gap.

You’ve just announced that you’re both running for leadership of the Green party and pregnant - while continuing to serve as Women’s Minister, Associate Health Minister, and Associate Transport Minister. What is driving you?

I really love my job, I love being able to make a difference, and there are so many things we could do better that will look after people and the environment for the long-term. I don’t want my child to grow up not being able to walk inside school safely, to not be able to afford a decent place to live, or to live on a planet with a destabilised climate.

"I don’t want my child to grow up not being able to walk inside school safely"

So, I think there’s a lot of urgency to the issues that we’re working on, and even though we’re quite limited in what we can achieve in the next three years, I see a really important role for the Green Party in the next decade. We have to build on our achievements in this term to be more successful and to be able to negotiate greater gains in 2020.

And, I wasn’t expecting necessarily to get pregnant now, because I had such difficulty with it in the last term of government. I did try, because I was 35 after the last election and I thought, “Oh if I don’t do something about this now while I’m in opposition, I might miss the opportunity”. My partner is really keen to have children -- but we had such difficulty that I didn’t think it was going to happen.

And then suddenly here I am and I thought - it’s not a reason not to keep doing what I’m doing, because this is a once in a lifetime opportunity, both of them are, to have a family and to have this amazing job where I can help the Green party help the future of New Zealand.

And I have a very supportive partner, so I’m quite lucky. In some ways, I think it will be easier for me to have a child now than many of the families who are working several shift jobs for minimum wage. I’m privileged to have a good income, to have a partner who can take time off work. And to have work that’s really energising - it’s not like I have to go to work in a factory for 12 hours: my work involves long hours but it’s really stimulating and energising.

I feel a little uncomfortable asking you about the pregnancy – male ministers would never be asked what drives them to have a family and work at the same time!

There’s no question that it does impact us a little bit more - but it doesn’t need to for very long. I intend to breastfeed if possible for as long as possible, and my partner wouldn’t have to take as much time off post-birth as I will.

"If women can’t do these jobs and have a family, then something about the job needs to change"

Our Prime Minister is doing it - so I thought, well I should be able to do it too! I think that if women can’t do these jobs and have a family, then something about the job needs to change.

It’s a huge privilege and opportunity to break the mould and normalise the idea of people like me as leaders. It's been 125 years since New Zealand women won the vote, and we still have a persistent pay gap. Women are still underrepresented in leadership roles, particularly in parliament: even though we have more women in our parliament now than ever before, it’s still well under 50%.

So, I hope this is the continuation of change that’s long overdue.

You have just announced two new initiatives around the gender pay gap. The first is around pay equity, making it easier for women to make unequal pay claims, and the second is a pay transparency bill that would follow the UK in requiring employers to publicise their pay gaps. Why is this issue so prominent right now?

It’s my number one priority. Closing the gender pay gap in the core public sector and being on a track to close it in the wider public sector and private sector is in our Confidence and Supply Agreement with the Labour-led coalition. That really comes out of the Green Party making it a priority in negotiations, though it’s something that was probably agreed to by all parties in the government.

The other initiatives the government has already put in place include extending paid parental leave from 18 weeks to 22 weeks, which will take effect this July, and then to 26 weeks in 2020. And immediately lifting the minimum wage which will have flow-on impacts, particularly for women, because they make up 60% of all minimum wage workers.

It’s known rural and Maori women have higher pay gaps than everyone else. Why is this, and is it something you plan to focus on?

I think it’s the intersection of the consequences of colonisation and the systematic discrimination and deprivation that comes with being a woman. Maori women – say in Northland or on the East Coast -- are very likely to be underemployed, they’re concentrated in lower paid industries, and there’s quite a number of young Maori women who are not in any form of education or employment.

It’s going to take time to resolve those structural issues, but we can start by recognising that it’s a problem their pay gap is so much worse and that it’s something that we should be doing something about.

But what can you do about it?

In the public sector, we’ve got more direct levers. We can identify and target the lowest paid first, and focus on professions that have high percentages of Maori and Pacific women.

Just talking about it a lot and raising the issue is also important. I’ve been told that the previous Ministers for Women never did anything particularly on that issue or never brought it up.

I’m also working with people in the private sector to do a push on what we can do to increase diversity on boards and in senior leadership teams, and I think that will flow through to more change in the private sector if we are successful.

Are you looking at quotas for company boards like they have in Scandinavia?

I have asked for research on quotas, targets and different legislative avenues, but before rushing into that I want to start by bringing together people from across the private and public sector who are really passionate about this and getting some consensus on what the best way forward will be in New Zealand.

"I don’t want to back away from whatever is going to be most effective"

I know that in some countries quotas have technically been successful but they have also had unintended outcomes like companies de-registering and re-registering as a different type of organisation. In New Zealand, particularly, there’s some suggestion that quotas might not be the most effective way of achieving change, but I don’t want to back away from whatever is going to be most effective.

Similar inequalities exist in healthcare - providing health services and infrastructure to rural communities is often not seen as cost-efficient, meaning women’s health outcomes are worse than in cities. One innovation I’ve seen from New Zealand is the mobile breast cancer screening units that travel around the country – do you think they’ve been a success?

Absolutely, they’ve been a success. There’s no question that the difficulty in providing social and physical infrastructure in rural areas is part of the challenge, and the reason why we have worse health outcomes there.

We’ve got a series of mobile services, so mobile breast-screening services, mobile oral health clinics, and mobile surgical services, which can provide elective day surgeries to rural communities.

"There’s no question that the difficulty in providing social and physical infrastructure in rural areas is part of the challenge"

We also have psychiatric outreach services, but I should say that we’re in the midst of an enquiry into mental health because, generally, our mental health system hasn’t been meeting needs in the cities or in the rural areas.

There are at least nine mobile breast screening units operating throughout New Zealand, and nearly a quarter of all screening mammograms are undertaken in mobile units - 30% of Maori women were screened in mobile units. So, I’d say that’s been very successful.

Of course, there are also some challenges, but they’re totally surmountable. Mobile schedules require a lot of planning, and schedule changes need to be planned to ensure accessibility and screening timeliness. Another challenge is road access in New Zealand, especially when we have natural events like earthquakes or flooding. And then there’s IT issues: in some rural areas, it can be a problem to send mammography images back to the main site.

In terms of New Zealand’s broader women’s health strategy, as both Associate Health Minister and Women’s Minster, what are you hoping to achieve?

I certainly hope to bring more of a gender lens to health issues and services. It is early days, and we’re exploring what we can do in the context of a health budget where I don’t have overall budgetary responsibility.

But I think even just directing the Ministry of Health to make certain issues a higher priority than they have been will have flow-on benefits. For example, endometriosis - we want an endometriosis action plan, because we know a lot of women are suffering from quite debilitating pain associated with it.

Surgical mesh used in transvaginal operations is something we’ve been dealing with quite early on. It has proved to be very problematic, and we just followed Australia in restricting the supply of surgical mesh products because they cannot be guaranteed to be safe and so many women - hundreds of women in New Zealand, possibly thousands - are suffering from ongoing pain.

And then there’s everything to do with maternity services. Perinatal and post-natal depression for young mothers is a big issue, and that will be something we’ll be pushing through the mental health enquiry to make sure that there’s appropriate access to support and early intervention. I think that will take some time to build up because the last government was underfunding health for nine years.

(Picture credit: Getty)