In his quest to share the value of feminism in contemporary society, SoSaturnistic has decided to meet with the Wellington Chamber of Commerce in that city. Meeting with business leaders, SoSaturnistic was potentially out of his element. However, his affable persona cut through and when it came to the address portion he was ready to deliver a message.

Good afternoon everyone. It has been quite the journey to get here but I am so pleased to have met with many of you earlier.

The idea of diversity has often been a corporate theme for years now. It’s been a goal of business, especially in recent times, to take on some sort of corporate responsibility in how it acts. Year on year people are more socially conscious and that has a real impact on their consumption. If you are a tainted brand, you risk losing customers. From a demand-side look at things, it just doesn’t pay to not be diverse and not include different voices who are better able to take part in the making, marketing, and sale of your products and make them relevant to different populations.

With that in mind it is important to consider the impacts of increasing the participation of women in the workforce from the perspective of the labour force. In matters of employment, the lack of talent being taken up is a real loss for business. When we look at the gap in employment between women and men, it’s astounding. Thousands of women who would, under different material circumstances, be able to provide excellent talent for your organisation are simply discounted. We know that when the labour force grows it helps expand prosperity for business, so the same is really true when we include more women in the workplace; it has the exact same economic effect.

The fact of the matter is that our party, the Feminist Initiative, is clear-cut on eliminating many of the barriers that women face when it comes to entering the workforce. We are planning on implementing ‘active labour market policies’ which will boost training and talent development for women in particular. In many cases, conventional education schemes do not take into account the needs of women and our approach will be a shake up and bring new people in who want to make a living and who want to contribute to your organisation.

When it comes to one of the largest barriers to entering the workforce, the care of children, our party again has the solutions here. The exorbitant cost of ECE, after and before care, and childminding means that women are forced to choose between attending their child and making a career out of something they’ve always wanted to do. By taking an integrated, Nordic approach to the childcare dilemma we can substantially expand the opportunities of women in our society. In countries like Sweden and Finland, there are higher quality carers, lower costs, more extensive subsidisation, and a variety of forms of childcare provision to ensure that families have a wide array of options which can fit their own needs. We pledge to take these lessons to heart in our party’s policy and ensure such policy is properly implemented in the next Parliament should we make it into the Beehive.

We are offering a different slate of policy than the normal political party. No other party is offering a means by which your talent pool is expanded in such a great magnitude. Some other parties might offer tax advantages. Others might pledge some short term subsidy. Ours is fundamentally altering the labour market to make it more inclusive, offering real opportunity for business and enterprise while also making the economy more inclusive.

Feminism, friends, isn’t just a matter of social justice. It’s good economics and good for business if we can come around to accepting it. It might be a steep request but I hope some of you will be willing to see the Feminist Initiative as a genuine social partner in our ambition to build a more equal society.