New Zealanders overwhelmingly want gender equality, but Te Kaunihera Wāhine o Aotearoa National Council of Women of New Zealand’s latest Gender Attitudes Survey shows that any progress we’ve achieved in the last 132 years since universal suffrage risks being slowed by complacency, harmful attitudes, and government actions that run counter to public demand.

NCWNZ, alongside Rangahau Aotearoa Research New Zealand, has been monitoring attitudes to gender in Aotearoa New Zealand since 2017 as part of our longitudinal Gender Attitudes survey.

The 2025 survey results highlight strong consensus across Aotearoa that New Zealanders want gender equality to be achieved:

• 79% believe gender equality is a fundamental right
• 78% say achieving equality would mean equal pay for women and men
• 67% believe equality would mean more women in senior management.

Despite the historical progress in Aotearoa, we are still falling short of achieving our equality goals. NCWNZ President Dr Suzanne Manning says, “Our survey is telling us that having equality for all genders is important to us, but some attitudes Kiwis have are holding us back – and pushback from smaller groups is reversing our forward progress in some key areas.”

Importantly, some results indicate a mistaken belief that gender equality has been achieved already. The survey also reveals worrying complacency and a concerning backward trend on what progress should look like:

• 46% of New Zealanders think equality has already been achieved
• 1 in 3 young men (18–34) believe equality has gone too far
• 40% no longer see sexism as a significant issue
• 17% of New Zealanders think that if someone is raped when they’re drunk they’re at least partly responsible for it
• 11% of people think that if someone doesn’t physically fight back you can’t call it rape

Agreement that “it’s understandable for a man to hit out when his partner tries to leave” has risen from 8% (2017) to 14% (2025).

“If we believe gender equality has been achieved, we’re unlikely to prioritise actions that must be sustained to make true progress,” Dr Manning said. “This is made worse when our country’s leaders make crucial decisions on pay equity, women’s health, education and climate policy that disproportionately affect women and which set us back decades on the progress we’ve already made.”

Earlier this year, the government passed the Equal Pay Amendment Bill, which cancelled more than 33 active pay equity claims covering over 150,000 workers, including teachers, librarians, care workers, and administration staff. The new law also makes it far harder to bring future claims, raising workforce thresholds, restricting comparators, and phasing in pay adjustments over years.

“When our government signals it will endorse actions and legislation that devalue women’s contributions to society, gender equality is going to go backwards. NCWNZ is not going to simply stand by and watch this happen,” Manning said. “We need our leaders to know that they must work harder to deliver what is important to the majority of the people they represent.

“This survey is strongly telling us what kind of future New Zealanders want. The findings underscore an urgent need to re-engage all Kiwis – and young people in particular – in the conversation about equality. We need to ensure that their voices are heard about the country they want to live in.”

For more information on the 2025 Gender Attitudes Survey, visit genderequal.nz/ga-survey.

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