Green Party MP Julie Anne Genter is New Zealand's Minister for Women, and is also the associate minister responsible for portfolios of transport, and health.

At the end of 2017, Merriam-Webster pronounced "feminism" to be Word of the Year. A few months prior, Green Party MP Julie Anne Genter was named New Zealand's new Minister for Women, alongside portfolios of associate transport, and health. Last month Genter announced both her bid for co-leadership of the party and her pregnancy. In a climate where women's issues have rarely felt more urgent, Britt Mann met Genter – her trademark bicycle in tow – for a chat.

BM: You've called yourself a "full-time feminist". I was wondering, for want of a better phrase, when was your "feminist awakening"?

JAG: I was always really passionate about equal rights for men and women. But when I was about 19, I took a history class called Women in American History, and that was a revelation. It was the first time that I got to understand the history of North America from the perspective of women, who are often left out of the history books. Ordinary women who make society work. [Of course,] there are the Emma Goldmans [anarchist political activist and writer], who are incredibly inspiring... I had a bumper sticker that was a quote from Emma Goldman: "Well behaved women rarely make history..."

CHRIS SKELTON/STUFF "I have two younger brothers...Our parents very much had the spirit of, 'women are equal, women have an important role to play in society.'"

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BM: Was there any particular woman's story from that course that has stayed with you?

JAG: Women like Harriet Tubman, who were helping African Americans escape from slavery during a time of horrific injustice in North American history... And stories of ordinary women, who weren't African American – white women – who went against everything in their education and their community because they saw this injustice, who helped lead the abolition.

GETTY IMAGES Julie Anne Genter takes the oath at the swearing-in ceremony at Government House on October 26, 2017 in Wellington.

BM: In your own life, who has been a role model for you?

JAG: My mother Pauline, she is pretty inspiring. She's a scientist and she raised three children. My father was a doctor and they were always champions for all of us. I have two younger brothers. So, I was the oldest. And the bossiest. I'm really good friends with my brothers. I was a bit of a tomboy... Our parents very much had the spirit of, "women are equal, women have an important role to play in society that's more than just raising children".

BM: What kinds of discussions have you been having with colleagues, even friends, in this climate of women speaking out about their untoward experiences with men? Has there been anything that has surprised you?

Rosa Woods Julie Anne Genter outside the Beehive in Wellington.

JAG: Even before the Weinstein case and all of the subsequent sexual harassment allegations in the States, here in New Zealand, there was that moment in the last term where the Prime Minister [John Key] accused the Opposition of supporting rapists. And a whole series of women – a number of them from the Green Party but also from the Labour Party – stood up and said, "As a survivor of sexual violence, I take offence at that statement." And they got kicked out of the debating chamber.

I thought that was an amazing moment. I was surprised at how many of my colleagues were survivors of sexual violence. For some of my colleagues, it was the first time they had ever spoken of it in public. It was incredibly emotional. I was very proud of them for speaking up and also horrified that so many women had had to endure this.

BM: Having lived in the US, France and New Zealand, have you noticed differences in the way men and women relate to each other in those countries?

Rosa Woods Genter speaks to several hundred cyclists at the annual Wellington Go Bike Day at Queens Wharf, Wellington.

JAG: Definitely, in France. It was really different. And actually, France was probably the place where I encountered some sexual harassment which I have never encountered in quite the same way in North America or New Zealand.

BM: What do you say to gender pay gap naysayers?

JAG: The work that has predominantly been done by women – which is often caring, child-raising, looking after the elderly – has been historically undervalued and not seen as something that contributes to the economy. Which is ridiculous. Without children being raised healthy and well, and being educated, and without people being looked after when they're sick or when they're at the end of their life, we're not going to have a successful, happy society, and we're not going to have a thriving economy. So the whole idea that the only work that is worthwhile is work that gets particular commercial return is something that we need to change.

Bevan Read MPs Jacinda Ardern and Julie Anne Genter, before the two were in Government, with the late Paddles Ardern-Gayford, at Ardern's home.

We need to take on directly the idea that the gender pay gap is a myth. Because it's objectively verifiable. And it's so much worse for Māori and Pasifika women than it is for Pākehā women. That's another issue I'm hoping to be able to raise in this role – we're not just going to focus on the gender pay gap, we're going to look at the ethnic pay gap and outcomes for Māori and Pasifika women, and other migrant women or women of colour.

I've even had women say to me: "I wouldn't want to be on a board or be CEO just because I'm a woman. I want to be there on my merits." What I say to them is, the only reason 99 per cent of CEOs on the NZX are men and over 80 per cent of the board members of those companies are men is because they're men. It's not because they're the best people for the job. Women have been historically discriminated against. And we have to take steps to change that.

[We're wanting to] close the pay gap in the public sector, but also get on a pathway to close it in the wider public service and the private sector. Government can directly control how we pay our own public service employees. Working with the private sector, there aren't as many levers. But pay transparency is something I'm hoping we can progress. That's been enacted in the UK and Australia – it just means companies of a certain size have to measure and report on their gender pay gap. That means they can start to recognise it, and take steps to fix it. When private companies start measuring their gender pay gaps, they're usually unpleasantly surprised about what they find, and they're usually very effective at taking steps to fix it.

BM: The Ministry hasn't had a particularly visible profile in the last nine-ish years... maybe ever... and it seems like you have an opportunity to increase it. How do you feel about that, and why do you think it's been put on the back burner by your predecessors?

JAG: It just doesn't fit with the ideology of the National Party – that there is injustice and inequality that we need to do something about. Their overall approach seems to be one of less government involvement and "sink or swim" – without recognising the historic injustice that makes it impossible for people to be treated equally and fairly unless we have specific policies to counteract that history.

I think it would have been very difficult for the women in the National Party because, last term, their caucus was almost 75 per cent male and they tended not to want to go out and make a big deal about being a feminist, they shied away from that angle. Which I think is unfortunate, because I know that they believe in gender equality – and that's all feminism is about. There's nothing "anti-men" about it. There's nothing "anti-men" about being a feminist.