Sian Halcrow.

Tēnā koutou katoa, ko Siân Halcrow toku ingoa,

It has been my privilege to be an Academic Representative on Te Hautū Kahurangi|TEU National Women’s Committee (NWC) for the past two terms and I am excited about the possibility of being the Te Tumu Arataki NWC Tiriti | National Vice President NWC Tiriti working together with Te Tumu Arataki NWC Māori and supporting the wonderful group of wāhine who work on the committee.

I am a Professor in Biological Anthropology at the University of Otago, where I have been a student, and then an academic staff member for the past 19 years. I have a passion for issues of gender equity in the University environment and have served on committees with a focus on gender at local, national, and international levels.

During my time in academia, I have seen some changes implemented for achieving gender equity in the academic realm, but there is still so much that needs to be done. These issues are even more critical with the current crisis we are seeing in the tertiary education sector, especially as research shows that women are more negatively affected with workload issues, job insecurity, pay inequity, and threats of redundancy. The National Women’s Committee has achieved a lot over the past few years, including the submission of the Gender Equity Pay Claim. The TEU as a collective is continuing to have a real impact on equity and workload issues for women.

I was a founding member of the Royal Society of New Zealand’s Early Career Research Group, where a focus was on gender equity and career continuity for women. I was the President for Graduate Women (GW) Otago and the Young Member’s Representative for the National Executive for GW. Internationally, I sat on the Society for American Archaeology Committee for the Status of Women in Archaeology. I am a proud mother of two children (18 and 9).