The Institute of Directors has launched a mentoring scheme aimed at helping women develop connections with top business leaders and gain the skills that would allow them to achieve board positions, Otago IOD chairman Stuart McLauchlan said.
Last week, the Otago institute brought Ministry of Women's Affairs chief executive Rowena Phair to Dunedin to talk to more than 50 women about the prospect of board appointments.
Mr McLauchlan told the Otago Daily Times so far Otago was one of the leading branches in its promotion of diversity on boards.
The institute was well aware of the need to promote board diversity generally in New Zealand. The pool of operating directors needed to be supplemented to ensure continuing good governance in New Zealand, he said.
Earlier in the month, Goldman Sachs released a report that showed women held only 9.3% of top roles on the NZX top 100 companies.
In New Zealand, women held less than 20% of senior management roles in those companies and 57% of the top 100 companies had no women directors.
Participation had increased slowly from 5.1% in 2003 to 9.3% in 2010. The gender pay gap was 10.6%.
Women's Affairs Minister Hekia Parata said since 1970 the rise in women's employment rate had resulted in a 30% increase in economic activity.
"But New Zealand is only three-quarters of the way to unlocking the hidden value of the female labour pool," she said.
Ms Phair said there were several challenges for women in moving up in the workforce, but the rebuilding of Christchurch was a chance to address the shortage of skills in the workforce.
So far, the skill shortage was seen as male dominated, with construction workers being recruited from around the country.
She advocated employing more women to work on the rebuilding because women in top positions or in board roles were more outward looking and were better connected to the customers.
In the United States, companies with women in top roles fared better during the global financial crisis because they recognised the signs of the imminent meltdown far earlier than their male colleagues, Ms Phair said.
A ministry survey showed many women would like to work in non-traditional roles and would like to work longer but were restrained by inadequate access to child-care facilities.
She also urged young women to be more aware of what they could be paid in five years. While a young male and female could both start work at the same time, it was likely that in five years the young male would be earning much more than the female.
Ms Phair said she was encouraged throughout her career to put herself forward for more demanding roles. That encouragement came from both male and female colleagues.
She told the women attending the IOD function to put themselves forward for selection for top roles because they had much to contribute to the country's economy.
She challenged the women attending to find someone they believed in to help them through encouragement to put themselves forward for appointment.
