The table illustrates changes in gender-based workforce distribution across six sectors in New Zealand between 1993 and 2003.
Overall, while Service and Transport, Manufacturing and Building exhibited gender-opposing shifts, three remaining sectors shared the same patterns, with rises in Business and Social Services and a fall in Agriculture. It is important to note that the number of workers in Service and Transport maintained its lead in both examined years.
Looking first at the Agriculture workforce that recorded a decline, in the initial point, male workers made up 38%, which was approximately five times higher than the rate for their female counterparts standing at only 8%. Over 10-year period, the percentage of women employed in this sector decreased by 2% and this figure for men experienced a more pronounced fall to 8%. Despite decreasing by varying degree, the number of male workers in Agriculture still outweighed female across surveyed years.
In stark contrast, the overall increase in both genders can be seen in the Business and Social Services workforce. There was a slight rise in Social Services’ employment distribution by nearly 5% in female and male employees. By the end of the period, their respective participation had reached 18% and 9% with men shares doubling that of women. In a more significant extent, the workforce distributed in Business initially commenced at negligible rates with 1% for females and 7% for males and increased to 22% and 25% respectively in 2003.
Finally, only in the category of three remaining sectors were there gender-opposing shifts. The year of 2003 witnessed a substantial fall of Service and Transports female workforce, from 53% to 36% whereas this rate for male moderately rose by 9% to 31%. Notwithstanding this change, Service and Transport maintained the highest employed workforce throughout. Similarly, female employment in Manufacturing almost halved to 12%, reversely, there was a minor increase by 1% to 17% in male workers. A converse pattern was shown in the Building workers, while the proportion for males had a slight contraction by 2%, that for females appeared the first time in 2003 at 6%