title: A Historical Analysis of the Status of Women in New Zealand: Has CEDAW had an Impact?

authors: Jones, Heidi

subjects: women

abstract: This thesis analyses the current and historical status of women in New Zealand for the purpose of discovering why full equality between men and women has not yet been achieved. This object will be accomplished by analysing, comparing and contrasting the international Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (“CEDAW”) with changes successive New Zealand Governments have made to the status of women so as to discover the degree of intent such Governments have had to implement equality.
This thesis is in chronological order, beginning from an analysis of the creation of the status of women dating pre 1300 B.C., detailing degradations, changes and improvements in the status up until 2012 A.D. The main divisions are based on general periods of importance for women; chapter one investigates how the secondary status of women originated and evolved in ancient eras. Chapter two examines the significant international and domestic women’s rights movements during the mid-twentieth century. Chapter three discusses the importance of an international instrument as a comparative tool; illustrated by CEDAW’s contrast to the New Zealand status of women during the mid-1980s. Chapter four analyses the Governmental changes made over the next quarter century to discover whether New Zealand was moving closer towards a reflection of the international instrument. Chapter five evaluates the contemporary status of women in New Zealand; and finally, chapter six details recommendations for the State with the intention of raising the status of women to full equality.
The conclusions reached are, first; that the current status of women in New Zealand is not one of equality with men because their original status was seen as secondary. Therefore the goal of attaining equal (formal) legal rights to gain equality is not appropriate as it merely gives women what were considered “men’s rights” without giving them the opportunity to practice them in full equality. Secondly; the use of CEDAW as a comparative instrument is shown to provide a more effective strategy of gaining equality that does not always involve giving women gender-neutral “men’s rights” but needs to be given greater power to be proved effective.
The comparison with an instrument that provides for perfect equality contributes to a thorough understanding of the status of women in New Zealand as the comparison provides a clear and objective view of why the original premise that formal rights would achieve substantive equality was an incorrect supposition. The thesis also contributes alternative action to be undertaken by the Government to effectively achieve equality for women.

text: A Historical Analysis of the Status of Women in New Zealand: Has CEDAW had an Impact? This thesis analyses the current and historical status of women in New Zealand for the purpose of discovering why full equality between men and women has not yet been achieved. This object will be accomplished by analysing, comparing and contrasting the international Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (“CEDAW”) with changes successive New Zealand Governments have made to the status of women so as to discover the degree of intent such Governments have had to implement equality.
This thesis is in chronological order, beginning from an analysis of the creation of the status of women dating pre 1300 B.C., detailing degradations, changes and improvements in the status up until 2012 A.D. The main divisions are based on general periods of importance for women; chapter one investigates how the secondary status of women originated and evolved in ancient eras. Chapter two examines the significant international and domestic women’s rights movements during the mid-twentieth century. Chapter three discusses the importance of an international instrument as a comparative tool; illustrated by CEDAW’s contrast to the New Zealand status of women during the mid-1980s. Chapter four analyses the Governmental changes made over the next quarter century to discover whether New Zealand was moving closer towards a reflection of the international instrument. Chapter five evaluates the contemporary status of women in New Zealand; and finally, chapter six details recommendations for the State with the intention of raising the status of women to full equality.
The conclusions reached are, first; that the current status of women in New Zealand is not one of equality with men because their original status was seen as secondary. Therefore the goal of attaining equal (formal) legal rights to gain equality is not appropriate as it merely gives women what were considered “men’s rights” without giving them the opportunity to practice them in full equality. Secondly; the use of CEDAW as a comparative instrument is shown to provide a more effective strategy of gaining equality that does not always involve giving women gender-neutral “men’s rights” but needs to be given greater power to be proved effective.
The comparison with an instrument that provides for perfect equality contributes to a thorough understanding of the status of women in New Zealand as the comparison provides a clear and objective view of why the original premise that formal rights would achieve substantive equality was an incorrect supposition. The thesis also contributes alternative action to be undertaken by the Government to effectively achieve equality for women.

year: 2013

title: Exploring the front end of New Zealand curriculum in student teacher education: an example from language and mathematics education.

authors: Bailey, Judy

subjects: New Zealand curriculum

abstract: This paper reports on two components of a collaborative project conducted by members of the language and literacy education, mathematics education and social studies teaching teams at the Faculty of Education, The University of Waikato. The teams decided to research the implications of the front end of The New Zealand Curriculum document [NZC] (Ministry of Education, 2007). The front end of the document includes key competencies and a statement describing each learning area. The language and literacy team chose to explore student teacher understandings of the English essence statement and the way in which that learning area is structured. The mathematics education team explored student teacher understandings of and implications for the "thinking" key competency for the teaching and learning of mathematics. Data were collected through in-class observations and tasks, and the analysis of aspects of student assessment work. The findings highlighted the value of an explicit focus on a particular facet of the NZC along with the challenges student teachers experience in envisaging how this might play out in practice.

text: Exploring the front end of New Zealand curriculum in student teacher education: an example from language and mathematics education. This paper reports on two components of a collaborative project conducted by members of the language and literacy education, mathematics education and social studies teaching teams at the Faculty of Education, The University of Waikato. The teams decided to research the implications of the front end of The New Zealand Curriculum document [NZC] (Ministry of Education, 2007). The front end of the document includes key competencies and a statement describing each learning area. The language and literacy team chose to explore student teacher understandings of the English essence statement and the way in which that learning area is structured. The mathematics education team explored student teacher understandings of and implications for the "thinking" key competency for the teaching and learning of mathematics. Data were collected through in-class observations and tasks, and the analysis of aspects of student assessment work. The findings highlighted the value of an explicit focus on a particular facet of the NZC along with the challenges student teachers experience in envisaging how this might play out in practice.

year: 2010

title: Testing a suicidal ideation-to-action framework among Queer and Takatāpui people in Aotearoa New Zealand: An examination of the three-step theory

authors: Schimanski, Irie

abstract: The three-step theory (3ST) of suicide is well-established in the general population and shows promise for explaining suicidal ideation among Queer samples. This study examined the applicability of the 3ST using data from 250 Queer (n = 213) and Takatāpui (n = 37) people aged 18-74 living in Aotearoa New Zealand. The analytic approach entailed hierarchical multiple regression, ANOVA, t-tests, and logistic regression. Step-one was partially supported, with discrimination and hopelessness independently associated with suicidal ideation, but not their interaction. Step-two was fully supported, showing social support associated with lower suicidal ideation when social support exceeded discrimination, compared with the inverse. Full support for step-three was observed, finding higher self-harm among participants with histories of attempted suicide than those who had never attempted. An adapted version of the 3ST for Queer and Takatāpui people is presented, offering novel approaches to testing the ideation-to-action framework with these communities.

text: Testing a suicidal ideation-to-action framework among Queer and Takatāpui people in Aotearoa New Zealand: An examination of the three-step theory The three-step theory (3ST) of suicide is well-established in the general population and shows promise for explaining suicidal ideation among Queer samples. This study examined the applicability of the 3ST using data from 250 Queer (n = 213) and Takatāpui (n = 37) people aged 18-74 living in Aotearoa New Zealand. The analytic approach entailed hierarchical multiple regression, ANOVA, t-tests, and logistic regression. Step-one was partially supported, with discrimination and hopelessness independently associated with suicidal ideation, but not their interaction. Step-two was fully supported, showing social support associated with lower suicidal ideation when social support exceeded discrimination, compared with the inverse. Full support for step-three was observed, finding higher self-harm among participants with histories of attempted suicide than those who had never attempted. An adapted version of the 3ST for Queer and Takatāpui people is presented, offering novel approaches to testing the ideation-to-action framework with these communities.

year: 2025-08-01