The least ambitious target ever

The Herald reports:

Women made up nearly half of state sector board and committee membership last year but Minister for Women Julie Anne Genter says that’s not high enough.

The Government today released the latest Gender Stocktake of State Sector Boards and Committees which shows a record high level of participation by women.

As at the end of 2017, women made up 45.7 per cent of state sector boards and committees.

But Genter said the figure should be higher.

The 46% all happened under National. And I think it is silly to try and aim for exact demographic representation. If you did that, you’d be complaining we have too many Maori MPs in Parliament. It is desirable to broadly reflect the community, but the difference between 46% and 50% is pretty minimal.

“This Government is committed to increasing women in leadership across all boards in New Zealand and we are leading by example,” she said today.

“We will ensure half of all directors on state sector boards and committees are women by 2021.”

Wow. They aim to increase the numbers by basically 1% a year. This is less than National over the last three years which went from 41.7% to 45.7%, or 1.3% a year.

This Government is saying they want to achieve 4.3% over four years or 1.1% a year.