June McCabe believes the business world offers great prospects for Maori women. After many years serving as a company director and corporate affairs manager in the banking and finance sector, she is seeing Maori business women coming into their own, she says. There is an affinity between Maori women and business, partly driven by the fact that Maori women find it easier to contribute professionally in the mainstream than in the tribal structure, she says.

 

Treaty and tribal matters attract strong, feisty Maori women, but McCabe has observed that women who are involved in the Treaty settlement process need a lot of conviction and passion to establish their role. Many Maori women simply find it easier to operate in the mainstream instead.

 

McCabe, who is involved in many community and business trusts and boards, champions empowerment of Maori women entrepreneurs. “I see more women making choices in mainstream activity work and opportunities than the other side, partly because I think [the tribal side is] very occupied by our men, so it becomes an issue of role clarity within the tribal setting. Whereas in the mainstream it’s all about skill and merit.”

 

She says overall, women are making good progress in many professions, particularly in middle management. They are increasingly found in legal and accountancy roles, and are particularly drawn to general consultancy, she says. “Maori women have embraced the whole idea of being able to work in a work-life balance where they can do consultancy but still look after the whanau,” she says.

 

McCabe believes Maori women have an approach to business that is creative and “big picture” rather than narrowly “locked in” to processes, administration or financial targets. “Maori women have a capacity to get to the heart of the issues more quickly and that’s all to do with how we’re raised and our whole wairua. So we bring this element of culture (in the organisational culture sense) that is softer and more intuitive; where work and life are integrated, and has heart and soul. As opposed to rationality and hard-wired thinking. That is a strength.”

 

One challenge faced by Maori women is that not all businesses are sympathetic to their way of doing things. McCabe is a corporate affairs manager at Westpac and she credits them with being more accepting of her approach than some businesses she has worked for.

 

“The challenge that I find personally in all my many roles, is that you come up against very pragmatic rational-thinking people who don’t necessarily see the value of the way that you perceive and bring to the table. Now, if you’re lucky enough to find people who can, you can really rise to the occasion. This has been my experience in a place like Westpac, who have given me lots of ability to do different things, to experiment, whereas in other environments you might not be so lucky.”