Ethnic Women in Politics (EWP) is a 3-year research project uniquely ‘about and by’ ethnic women.

Our research aims to examine lived realities of women in New Zealand politics, specifically focusing on those who are non-Pākehā, non-Māori and non-Pasifika, addressing the complex intersections between gender, ethnicity, culture and politics in Aotearoa’s bicultural and multi-ethnic democracy.

Although ethnic minority women are increasingly visible actors within mainstream politics in Western democracies, there is little scholarship focusing on their experiences. This dearth is especially evident in the context of Aotearoa/New Zealand.

Like elsewhere in the Anglo-European world, ethnic women in New Zealand are integral to politics – e.g., as MPs, councilors, party members, and political candidates – yet, they are overlooked in academic research.

This research seeks, at one level, to understand the experiences of ethnic women as politicians within New Zealand’s political systems. Conceptually, however, their lived realities are a window to examining the complex intersections between gender, ethnicity, culture and politics in New Zealand’s bicultural and multi-ethnic democracy, especially through the perspectives of the marginalised among minorities.

Funded by the Royal Society of New Zealand’s Marsden Grant.