Pay equity is back in the spotlight in New Zealand, with an unofficial “people’s select committee” about to report on last year’s legislative changes that overhauled the process and cancelled existing claims.

As we await its findings, it’s a timely moment to ask what problem pay equity settlements are actually meant to solve.

Over the past 50 years, women in Aotearoa have changed where they work in big ways. They have moved in significant numbers into occupations once dominated by men, including law, medicine and management.

In many professions that were overwhelmingly male a generation ago, women are now well represented. But the change has been largely one-way. Men have not moved in comparable numbers into jobs traditionally done by women.

These occupations, such as teaching, nursing, and care and support roles, remain heavily female dominated. That enduring imbalance is important, because it raises the question at the heart of pay equity: have roles historically performed by women been systematically undervalued?

Our research, drawing on five decades of Census data, tracks occupational segregation patterns in New Zealand over time.

While the overall picture has shifted, the persistence of female-dominated occupations tells us why........

© The Conversation