New Zealand Police were delighted to host the Government Women's Network Te Aka Wāhine o Aotearoa (GWN) quarterly Network Reps meeting on Tuesday 18 June.

Assistant Commissioner Sandra Venables warmly welcomed all GWN attendees to Police National Headquarters on behalf of Commissioner Mike Bush. Sandra opened the session acknowledging the importance of women’s networks in driving and supporting the development and progression of women across Government.

A workshop format

As previous networking events had primarily focussed on guest speakers and presenters we wanted a different focus for this event to get attendees working together to create actions to improve gender equality in our organisations.

In line with this approach, Jo Cribb was invited to facilitate a workshop that enabled attendees to share experiences of barriers to gender equality. Collectively we landed on a few key actions organisations can work on together to achieve our goal of seeing all women in Government achieving their potential.

Key action points

With the focus on the areas of culture, strategy, leadership, policies/processes and systems/structure attendees brainstormed together to land on five key areas for action:

  • Men as Allies
  • Women’s Networks
  • Strategies and Targets
  • Recruitment practices
  • Flexible working

A number of GWN members took the lead to progress pieces of work in particular areas of action – we are all looking forward to hearing more about this work over the coming months.

Download the A3 action point summary

 

Jo Cribb speaks to workshop action points
Post it notes of workforce gender issues
Small group sessions
Participants contribute to discussion and action points
Participants contribute to development of action points
Small group session report on collective ideas
Asst Commissioner Sandra Venebles introduces the workshop
Small group session report on collective ideas
Small group sessions build action points

 

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