New Zealand’s Infrastructure Organisations Celebrate International Women’s Day 2020

Infrastructure New Zealand members are demonstrating their commitment to improving gender equality, hosting events up and down the country in celebration of International Women’s Day 2020.

Aligning with this year’s theme of #EachforEqual, the events will showcase how a more gender equal world benefits business, communities, families and women themselves.

International Women’s Day 2020 comes just after the signing of the much-anticipated Diversity Agenda Accord, a cross-industry commitment to improve diversity and inclusion within New Zealand’s engineering and architecture sectors.

Increasing the participation of women is a vital issue within the New Zealand infrastructure sector, says Sarah Lang, founder of the Women’s Infrastructure Network, “It’s exciting to see the continued progress our industry is making in improving gender equality, but our challenge remains to maintain momentum. International Women’s Day is an important opportunity to celebrate how far we have come”.

Infrastructure New Zealand CEO Paul Blair emphasised the importance of a balanced infrastructure sector to deliver the strong pipeline of work ahead. “To achieve Infrastructure New Zealand’s vision of world class infrastructure we need more women in leadership, governance and across key roles in our industry. Infrastructure only exists to deliver key outcomes for people and to respond to community needs, so the voices of all of our society need to be heard if we are to have a more inclusive, future proofed and well performing industry.”

WIN Board Chair Margaret Devlin said it was encouraging to see the wide range of initiatives members had planned for International Women’s Day but urged the industry to maintain momentum. “It is really important that this momentum continues and embraced by all those who operate in the infrastructure sector. Of course, diversity is but one side of the equation, we also need to focus on inclusion. Only focusing on diversity without also taking steps to address inclusion will fail to create or sustain meaningful change in this very critical area. So, whilst much has been done, there is more to be done by all members of Infrastructure NZ.”

The Women’s Infrastructure Network will be celebrating International Women’s Day with networking events in Auckland and Waikato. Sarah will be speaking as part of a panel on the Future of Work hosted by British New Zealand Business Association and Hesketh Henry, for International Women’s Day, alongside Sarah Trotman, ONZM, Member at Waitemata Local Board of Auckland Council; Margaret Cox, former Irish Government Senator for 10 years and Charlotte Lockhart, 4 Day Week Global Foundation.

Infrastructure NZ member organisations are planning a raft of celebration activities for International Women’s Day, including panel discussions, staff networking events, internal and external communications and even a photography exhibition.

Infrastructure NZ applauds these member organisations and many others who are taking a proactive approach with diversity and inclusion initiatives within their organisation. “Ensuring the infrastructure sector is reflective of the wider community, and is attractive to the best and brightest minds no matter to whom they belong, will ensure we have a bright future.” says Sarah Lang.

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