Our history

The Government Women's Network (or GWN) started in 2015 when a group of professional women who didn't know each other came together for business.

The group identified that people in a wide of range of different agencies were doing the same things, interested in the same concerns and promoting the same kinds of activities.

It seemed that there must be a better way.

One year later, the result is a network designed by women, for women, reaching right across government and all around New Zealand.

12 interested agencies initially helped to get GWN off the ground.

Interest in establishing the GWN grew from meetings of public sector women's networks in late 2014 and 2015. These meetings involved representatives from: Inland Revenue; Ministry of Education; Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment; Ministry for the Environment; Ministry of Foreign Affairs; Ministry of Justice; Ministry for Pacific Peoples; Ministry for Women; New Zealand Defence Force; Police; Treasury; Te Kawa Mataaho Public Service Commission and others.

GWN has been co-created through an Establishment Working Group that comprised of individuals from IRD, MFAT, MoJ, MPIA and SSC.

You can find more documents related to GWN's history and plan on our resources page.