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Changes to government policy, deregulation and corporatization in New Zealand have influenced the number and status of women on boards of directors. Using company records, archival material and interviews, examines gender equity on boards of directors in New Zealand and compares the progress of women on the boards of corporate companies in the private sector with those on crown company boards in the public sector. While increasing numbers of New Zealand women are entering the business arena, they continue to be underrepresented in the boardrooms and there exists a clear disparity between gender representation on the boards of crown and corporate companies with women being disadvantaged in the private sector. Includes interview material from women who have successfully achieved directorships and examines the approaches they adopted. Outlines some positive steps to assist women in the bid for corporate directorship, but suggests that the challenge of changing corporate and societal attitudes remains.

Leadership theorists have attempted over the years to encapsulate the mystique, the magic ingredient of what makes leadership successful into a formula or model. The most widely‐held view of leadership during the 1980s and 1990s seems to be that derived from Burns’ work in 1978, which contrasts “transforming” leadership with “transactional” leadership. To explore the relationship between gender, success as a mayor in local government leadership and Burns’ theory, New Zealand’s women mayors were interviewed about their perceptions of leadership and their responses were linked to the concept of transforming leadership. The results suggest that women mayors do judge success as a leader in terms that are closely allied to transformational rather than transactional leadership.

Changes to government policy, deregulation and corporatization in New Zealand have influenced the number and status of women on boards of directors. Using company records, archival material and interviews, this paper seeks to examine gender equity on boards of directors in New Zealand and compare the progress of women on the boards of corporate companies in the private sector with those on crown company boards in the public sector.

The paper includes interview material from women who have successfully achieved directorships and examines the approaches they adopted. The paper uses company records and interviews to achieve this aim.

While increasing numbers of New Zealand women are entering the business arena, they continue to be underrepresented in the boardrooms and there exists a clear disparity between gender representation on the boards of crown and corporate companies with women being disadvantaged in the private sector.

The paper outlines some positive steps to assist women in the bid for corporate directorship, but suggests that the challenge of changing corporate and societal attitudes remains.