This article is written by Kerri Du Pont, Senior Communications Advisor, Government Women’s Network.

You could be forgiven for thinking that 2020 hasn’t had much to offer in the way of celebration.

As stories of hardship in the shadow of Covid-19 continue to develop, champions for gender equality have had plenty of reason to hold a bleak view of the impact of the global pandemic for women. But even in these uncertain times, New Zealand has shown that progress is possible on gender equality.

Led by the government’s Gender Pay Gap Action Plan, some big gains have been delivered for New Zealand’s public sector women. The Action Plan, initiated in 2018, is an ambitious framework designed to address bias and the inequities in pay, leadership, and work flexibility in the public service with 2020 as a target year for achieving many of these goals.

And so far, progress is on track: the Equal Pay Amendment Act 2020 has been signed into law, the public sector gender pay gap is at its lowest ever at 10.5%, women hold more than half of senior leadership roles within the public sector, 50% of public sector Chief Executives are women, and an annual stocktake of women on state sector boards and committees shows that female representation has risen to 49%.

System leadership helps, but it’s not a magic bullet

Undoubtedly, systemic leadership like this is a key component in helping public sector women make better progress in their careers.

These achievements are vital to making a fairer, more equal public service. But we often make the mistake of thinking that we only need to focus in one direction — on the glass ceiling — to make change happen. While senior leadership roles for women are essential for making equality visible, we also need to make certain that we’re taking in the full picture.

GWN creates a space for women in the sector to excel and be recognised and supported in their careers. It has influence to feed the experiences and challenges for women in public service upward to system leaders

Not all women aspire to break the ceiling and become tier 1 and 2 leaders. Women in frontline and customer-facing roles and women in middle-tier management still want and need support to be treated fairly and advance their careers. Often, these roles are where attitudes of bias and inequality are the most entrenched and are therefore hardest to shift.

By focusing on how we can support career development with a 360° view of their experiences, we can better serve women in all levels of the public service ecosystem.

Women’s networks: a wider lens and reach

So what does 360° support mean for women? Put simply, it means that women have access to opportunities, skill-building, mentoring, coaching and pathways to influence regardless of where they sit within their organisation. One of the best ways to achieve this more three-dimensional focus is by establishing employee-led women’s networks within public service agencies.

A majority of New Zealand’s public service agencies have women’s networks consisting of members from all tiers of the organisation, including men and women, led by a committee of volunteers. To deliver meaningful opportunities for their members, these networks can leverage the priorities and objectives outlined in the government’s Action Plan to develop resources and activities and promote progress — and career advancement pathways — for all women in their agencies.

Connecting individual women within and across the public sector, networks help to increase awareness of the challenges and successes experienced by a majority of the workforce

Government Women’s Network (GWN) is a cross-agency network within the New Zealand government that supports the development of women’s networks in the public service. It provides resources, guidance, advice, skills-development and celebrates the work and achievements of individual women and their agency networks.

Championed by a tier 1 sponsor, Naomi Ferguson, Commissioner Inland Revenue, and Papa Pounamu, a group of Chief Executives committed to growing diversity and inclusion in the public service, GWN has grown into an influential strategic network. With its visibility to top tier leaders, it can share and promote system goals and resources with its members as well as champion change across the wider public sector.

But it’s through GWN’s work and connections with women in all areas of public service that the network is uniquely positioned to provide this crucial 360° view in helping to advance women’s career opportunities.

GWN creates a space for women in the sector to excel and be recognised and supported in their careers. It has influence to feed the experiences and challenges for women in public service upward to system leaders. This work means the impact for women in every organisational tier is far greater than by system leadership alone.

Connect, celebrate, advance

With three-dimensional reach and impact, the potential for networks to create lasting change is significant.

Connecting individual women within and across the public sector, networks help to increase awareness of the challenges and successes experienced by a majority of the workforce (women made up almost 60% of New Zealand’s public sector workforce in 2020).

Creating visibility for achievements is an essential component of that. Every year, GWN names nine Wāhine Whetū (rising stars) in the public sector to recognise their career progression and achievement.

Safia Afrin, one of this year’s Wāhine Whetū, was celebrated in her agency, and more widely, through this recognition. She is also a member of the Ethnic Staff network in her agency, and knows first-hand the benefits that networks bring.

Safia told GWN that this public acknowledgement has made a significant impact for her. “Recognition from GWN gave me influence and a responsibility to help guide others like me. It helped me believe that I don’t need permission to make a real contribution and make change for things I believe in.”

Safia is leveraging that influence and the power of networks as co-lead of the growing Pan-Asian Public Sector Network to help remove barriers for diverse people across the sector.

Ultimately, if we are to make true in-roads on women’s career progression and equality, we’ll have to adjust our linear focus. System leadership will provide one dimension to achieve progress for women in the public service.

But with membership comprised from all tiers within agencies, networks can apply a wider lens on opportunities, challenges and successes to bring a more complete 360° view and help create lasting change for women in public service. — Kerri Du Pont

You can find resources and other information about starting your own network on the GWN website.

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