Women think big for Oceania

Women think big for Oceania

This weekend sees women from the four corners of the Pacific meeting to discuss the issues facing them and to agree on actions they can take to address them.

The New Zealand Federation of Business and Professional Women (BPWNZ) is hosting over 30 women from Australia, Cook Islands and American Samoa at the offices of PriceWaterhouseCoopers in Wellington.

“ These women face such things as salination of their water supplies due to rising sea levels and disempowerment of women due to lack of representation at all levels of management and governance” says Angela McLeod, President BPWNZ

Some of the actions these women are prepared to take include lobbying governments to promote women as leaders, legislate to improve working conditions for women and families and meeting all of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

“We will also be discussing how to encourage the business sector to use principles that act as guideposts for actions that advance and empower women in the workplace, marketplace and community.”

“In building a new era of sustainability we need to incorporate a new style of leadership that promotes gender equality” says Freda Miriklis, Vice President BPW International.

“As a pre-eminent International women’s group, we believe that without the empowerment of women, achieving the MDG’s will be impossible”

This includes businesses taking on board the seven women’s empowerment principles which offer a practical approach to advance women and point the way to a business and social environment that is both fairer and more prosperous for everyone.

“Today there is a business case for expanding women’s opportunities and increasingly, the private sector is realising that investing in women is not only the right thing to do, it’s the smart thing to do”

ENDS