- Issue date
- 13 March 2026
Thank you, Madam/Mr Chair.
New Zealand is pleased to contribute to this discussion on empowering older women and addressing the overlapping challenges of gender equality and aging.
For many, New Zealand is a good place to grow old. We have a universal pension scheme and the Government is focused on supporting older New Zealanders to live well for longer through the Better Later Life Action Plan.
However, gender inequalities build up across women’s lifetimes and become clearer in older age.
Despite women living longer, men have 25% more on average in retirement savings than women, reflecting the gender pay gap, career breaks, and the overrepresentation of women in part-time and lower-paid work.
Health outcomes also drive economic inequities for older women. For example, around 13% of women in New Zealand considered leaving the workforce due to menopause symptoms, contributing to earlier retirement r, reduced earnings and a loss of talent from our labour market.
New Zealand is taking concrete steps to address these economic inequalities faced by older women by focusing on the root causes of inequality across a woman’s life.
I would like to share three examples:
- We have introduced a Gender Pay Gap Toolkit to support businesses to understand and close their gender pay gaps, including practical tools and resources to promote action. Addressing pay disparities throughout women’s working lives is fundamental to improving retirement outcomes. Last year, we added tools to calculate the impact of ethnicity and disability on the gender pay gap – given the known impact these factors have.
- The Retirement Commission and Ministry of Education are improving outcomes for older women by building financial capability earlier in life. From this year, financial education will be embedded in the school curriculum, to support equitable access to knowledge and lifelong economic security.
- In 2025, the Ministry for Women launched a ‘Making Menopause Work’ guide to support employers to create menopause-supportive workplaces and help women build income security by remaining engaged in work longer.
A fundamental challenge to older women’s empowerment is the intersection of sexism and agism making older women less visible and valued in society, policy and data despite their vital roles as leaders, workers, knowledge holders and caregivers.
We look forward to hearing from others today about different ways that we can better value and empower older women. Thank you.