Veterinarians are distancing themselves from the remarks by Massey University's Chancellor Chris Kelly that are being labelled as sexist.

Massey University's chancellor has resigned after a backlash to the ill-advised comments he made about female vets.

The university published a statement on Wednesday stating chancellor Chris Kelly made the decision after extensive media coverage about comments he made in a rural publication about women vet graduates being worth just "two-fifths" of a fulltime equivalent vet.

"Having had time to carefully consider the views of many staff, students and stakeholders, I believe that it is in the interests of the university that I step aside," he said.

MURRAY WILSON/ FAIRFAX NZ Massey University chancellor Chris Kelly has stepped down following his controversial comments.

His comments had drawn widespread condemnation from academics, politicians and staff and students at Massey, with many people expressing their opinions on social media.

READ MORE:

* Outrage over Massey chancellor's comments about female vets

* New Zealand women 'still held back in the workplace'

Vet and Palmerston North City councillor Lorna Johnson said his words had hurt a lot of people in the vet community.

ROSS GIBLIN/FAIRFAX NZ Minister for Women Louise Upston said women should be encouraged and supported into fields such as mathematics and science.

"The level of outrage it caused and the damage on the reputation of the university was perhaps more than we realised."

Although Johnson did not agree with Kelly's comments, she said she had not called for his resignation.

"I actually think it's really sad."

Massey veterinary graduate Luke Haydock said Kelly's resignation was for the best.

"The more we replace outdated attitudes, the better."

Kelly did issue an apology and retraction after his comments were challenged but Haydock said a more sincere or better explanation may have helped.

"He should have given a thorough explanation of the point he was trying to get across."

Kelly may not have intended his comments to be interpreted the way they were but he should have been more careful, Haydock said.

"Before he was interviewed he should have done his research. It was irresponsible."

"As a chancellor he should know better," he said.

Haydock said he wanted the next chancellor to have a better knowledge of the millennials that predominantly made up the student body.

Veterinary graduate Rhiannon Moloney said the comments were frustrating but it was unfortunate that he resigned.

"It's a shame that the university will lose its chancellor rather than trying to improve awareness on some of the stereotypes raised, like gender inequality," Moloney said.

"It would have been better to use the situation to shed light and start a discussion.

"I thought nowadays we had broken out of those stereotypes."

The chancellor was a Massey graduate, worked as a veterinarian and headed state-owned enterprise Landcorp from 2001 to 2013.

Kelly was a member of the Massey University council since 2005 and was appointed chancellor in 2013.

He was made an officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit for service to agriculture this year.

GENDER EQUALITY DEBATE IGNITED

Kelly's views about the value of female vets have also ignited further debate about gender equality in New Zealand workplaces.

Veterinary Council chairman Nick Twyford said he was surprised by Kelly's comments and strongly disagreed with them.

"Women make fantastic vets and our annual work force analyses do not support the figures he quoted. Ten-year retention rate for the New Zealand profession is around 75 per cent, which is pretty good, compared to other professions."

He said there was a range of reasons why vets of any gender might leave the work force, including going overseas, the demanding nature of the work and compassion fatigue.

The industry had just reached a position where half of the fulltime equivalent vet work force was female, he said.

About 80 per cent of vet students were women but Twyford said there were three times as many female as male applicants to the veterinary programme, and the same proportion of male and female applicants were accepted.

Twyford said he was not aware of a gender divide or any inequality present in veterinary science but he agreed that discussions around gender equality in all workplaces needed "ongoing discussion".

Massey University Students' Association (MUSA) president Nikita Skipper said Kelly's comments were a reiteration of a dated point of view on gender roles.

She said they diminished the role of men as caregivers in their family and echoed an assumption that raising a family was 'women's work'.

Such attitudes devalued the contribution of women in society, belittled student success and reinforced damaging stereotypes, she said.

Minister for Women Louise Upston said it was also important to talk about the wider issue of gender equality, which included the pay gap.

She said women should be encouraged and supported into fields such as mathematics and science.

Upston agreed that gender equality was improving, with more women serving on state sector boards and moving into leadership roles, but she said there was a need for flexibility in the work force.

She said workplace bias was everywhere, unfortunately, but the idea that women were in any way less successful than men was "absolutely rubbish".

She said women made up about 43.4 per cent of people on state sector boards, while they only made up about 17 per cent of the private sector.

From a human resources capability study, Upston said the gender pay gap has decreased from 14 per cent to 13.5 per cent.

"Over all, the gender pay gap is falling – it's not falling fast enough."

A biannual report, released in October by the New Zealand Diversity Survey, found that wellbeing, flexibility, ageing, gender and bias were the top diversity issues for employees from large organisations.

The survey, which received 909 responses, also found an average of 45.9 per cent of women at the governance level.

There was an average of 48.1 per cent of women at the leadership and decision-making team.

Upston said whether women had children, or worked while raising kids was a choice that was up to them, and it was important there was workplace flexibility there to support those choices.

"Yes, women have babies. I'm one of them – I've had three."