The table illustrates employment patterns for male and female workers across five sectors in New Zealand in 1993 and 2003.
Overall, while most sectors were dominated by either males or females in 1993, the gender gaps had narrowed significantly by 2003, except for in social services, which slightly widened. Business and social services became more popular among both workforces over the ten-year period, whereas agriculture recorded lower participation. Meanwhile, building, manufacturing, and services & transport experienced more varied shifts between the two workforces.
In 1993, the majority of the female workforce (53%) worked in service & transport, exceeding the figure for males (22%) by a wide margin of 31%. Similarly, female workers’ second and third most common sectors were manufacturing (25%) and social services (13%), outstripping male participation (16% and 5%, respectively). By contrast, males dominated agriculture, at 38%, compared to only 8% of females. Building and business were also male-dominated, with 12% and 7% of the male workforce, whereas few to no female workers participated in these sectors.
By 2003, most sectors had recorded comparable participation from both workforces. Agriculture (6% for females and 8% for males), business (22% and 25%), and building (6% and 10%) had the smallest gender disparities of 2%, 3%, and 4%, respectively. In comparison, services & transport and manufacturing displayed wider divides of 5%: 36% of females participated in the former sector compared to 31% of males, while just 12% of females were employed in the latter in comparison to 17% of males. By contrast, social services had a widening gender gap of 9% (18% of females and 9% of male), the largest divide of any sector.