New Zealand: Company boards and gender inequality

The New Zealand Human Rights Commission has published its Census of Women's Participation 2008. The report indicates that women account for 8.65% of the directors of the largest 100 companies listed on the New Zealand Stock Exchange. 60 of these 100 companies have no female directors. The proportion of female directors of companies listed on the New Zealand Alternative Market has fallen from 16.39% in 2004 to 5.07 in 2008. The report contains international comparisons and it also indicates that female representation is much higher in other professions. For example, over a quarter of New Zealand judges are female.