Gender inequality in New Zealand

Gender equality is the state of equal ease of access to resources and opportunities regardless of gender, including economic participation and decision-making, and the state of valuing different behaviours, aspirations, and needs equally, also regardless of gender. Gender equality is a human right, which is recognised under the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Gender equality is increasingly framed as being central to the realisation of both modernisation and economic efficiency, and its achievement presented as a key to good governance. In 2025, New Zealand was ranked 5th out of a total of 148 countries in the Global Gender Gap Report which ranks countries in terms of gender equality in the population under four dimensions: economic participation and opportunity, educational attainment, health and survival, and political empowerment.