Fletcher Building wouldn't have hit its recent bout of trouble, had it had a woman in charge, one of New Zealand's highest-profile businesswomen says.

Former Spark boss, co-founder of My Food Bag and professional director Theresa Gattung spoke on Friday at a forum discussing equal pay and gender diversity in business.

During the Q&A session, when a member of the audience asked how Sir Ralph Norris would have faced Fletcher Building's shareholder meeting this week had he been a woman, Gattung said the construction company would never have been in poor financial state had a woman been at the helm.

CHRIS SKELTON/STUFF Theresa Gattung: "If a woman had been chairing Fletchers, that wouldn't have happened."

"If a woman had been chairing Fletchers, that wouldn't have happened," she said. The room broke into a thunderous applause.

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Norris resigned from his role as chairman of Fletcher Building this week, saying the board had to be accountable for the building group's huge construction losses.

DAVID WHITE/STUFF Fletcher chairman Ralph Norris resigned over its construction losses.

It came after its third attempt to get a handle on the scale of its losses.

Gattung later said she respected Norris having recognised diversity as a key driver for the success of a business.

She said New Zealand businesses were still miles behind in recognising the profitability gender diversity brought to an organisation.

SUPPLIED Spark chairwoman Justine Smyth says women need to be in leadership as a collective, not a token.

According to the Deloitte's 2017 Diversity Dividend report getting more women into leadership roles could boost the economy by $881 million.

Partner at global legal firm DLA Piper Tracey Cross said diversity and inclusion was an important conversation and while the benefits were known, many organisations were slow to act.

Cross said the policy for addressing and committing to pay parity had to come from the leaders, and at the moment most were men.

Deloitte's 2017 Diversity Dividend Report says 60 per cent of the 500 businesses surveyed did not have a policy or strategy for gender equality.

Although women make up the majority of New Zealand's workforce, they are under-represented in management positions, the report says.

There is only one female chief executive of a NZX listed company.

Gattung said if the country's top 10 companies wanted to they could achieve gender equality within 18 months.

"It's not about how businesses can achieve pay parity its about their intention."

Spark chairwoman Justine Smyth said it was unfortunate that many organisations were not making it a point to have a balance of women and men on their recruitment lists.

"It's a tragedy when a business says 'we can't find enough women'. They're not looking hard enough," Smyth said.

"Even at the board level, I have a mantra that I won't be the only woman on the board. It's the collective that makes the difference, not the token woman."

Last year Spark decided to measure its gender parity and has three male and three female non-executive directors.

Smyth said businesses that had a strategy to address the wage gap would be more successful in attracting and retaining talent.

"People want to work for companies that walk the talk."

Gattung said New Zealand needed to follow in the footsteps of Iceland and make inequality of gender pay illegal.

"Pay equality is paying the same for equal effort, it's simple."

The law, introduced late last year, requires private companies and government agencies to go through audits and receive certification that equal pay is provided, or they could face fines.