Newly appointed Minister for Women Julie Anne Genter is a "full-time feminist" with a goal to close the gender pay gap in New Zealand.

The advancement of women in New Zealand has hit a wall.

We have our third female Prime Minister in Labour's Jacinda Ardern. Her election means that for the first time since 2001 we've achieved the all-powerful feminine triptych once again; both the Governor General and Chief Justice are also women.

Still, we can do more, says the incoming Minister for Women Julie Anne Genter.

MONIQUE FORD/STUFF Newly appointed Minister for Women Julie Anne Genter makes no equivocations: she's a "full-time feminist". It was a statement her two predecessors were unable to make.

But in the face of a seemingly inauspicious start - the portfolio being dropped from Cabinet - the first-time Green Party Minister has a significant goal signed into its governing agreement with Labour.

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"We have a series of policies. One of the things we talked about was making chief executives in the public service directly accountable and responsible for closing the gender pay gap.

"We've taken advice on what's a realistic timeframe for achieving that. I think there's more that we can be doing with the private sector so that they can be doing the same thing," she said.

Genter has indicated she would be open to looking at legislating to make it happen in the private sector. Laws had been implemented overseas and Genter would be investigating how they had worked.

And she assured her absence from Cabinet would not be a barrier. She said it was a call the Greens specifically made, as they requested the women's portfolio.

"And when we made the decision to not go into full coalition, it meant that either we had to give up the portfolio or have it outside Cabinet."

It was a likely reason Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern recently went on the defensive over questions as to whether the portfolio's exclusion from Cabinet could be seen as a downgrade in its perceived importance by the Government.

Genter said she was confident the Prime Minister "is not going to let it slide just because we're not at the table every day".

​Ready to don the mantle of "full-time feminist", Genter says New Zealand has strong credentials as a global leader in gender equality but has "rested on its laurels".

At September 1, the gender pay gap stood at 9.4 percent, according to StatsNZ. The gender pay gap has reduced since 1998 - by 16.3 percent - but had stalled in the last decade.

A report released by the former Minister Paula Bennett, last year showed 80 percent of the gender pay gap was driven by "unexplained" factors. That meant factors that were hard to measure like conscious and unconscious bias – impacting negatively on women's recruitment and pay advancement.

Only 20 per cent of the gap was driven by measurable qualities like differences in education, working hours and the types of roles held across the genders.

Genter said business was open to progress, but accepted it needed certainty over any law changes. New Zealand could not advance on the issue, without specific policies.

"It's 2017, it's only fair. I think most people in New Zealand would say that people should be paid fairly for their work and they should not be paid less because they are a women.

"And yet we haven't had as much progress in closing the gap as we should have, and I think that's because we haven't been as proactive on policies that will be effective."

She said her own upbringing in the United States, against the backdrop of the hard-fought feminist and civil rights movements that had happened just a decade earlier had instilled a belief she could be what she wanted.

Genter said she wanted to set an example for young women "that they can do anything, they can achieve anything, they deserve to be treated as equal citizens in our society".

The Ministry of Women had been working to improve female representation on boards. Genter said that could be further pushed in the private sector, where it lagged.

"There is no reason why women shouldn't be equally represented in politics, governance and leadership. It's not because they don't merit it, it's because there's a set of unconscious bias. Unless we have systems to get around it, it's not going change."

Her own experience with that struck during Genter's earlier days as a transport planner - the only female consultant in her consultancy firm who wasn't in admin.

"So I understand how daunting that can be, but also that even though there were male leaders in that company who wanted to champion me and support me, there was still a time when I found out I was being paid less than some of my male colleagues who were newer and actually bringing in less work," she said.

Genter, who is also Associate Transport Minister and Associate Health Minister, expects both portfolios to cross paths with women's issues.

And following on from a previous Womens Minister in Louise Upston who famously said she wasn't a feminist, Genter said she wore the badge proudly. It was just "the acknowledgment that women are completely equal to men".

"And I know that there's some backlash against the idea that somehow it means that there's something wrong with men - that's not true," she said.