"No door is closed to women in this country. They've headed most of the professions now", says the current prime minister, Helen Clark. "Its had a dreadful effect on politics - they are all hard working, all sober and all intelligent", jokes cartoonist Tom Scott. However, if you look across the community as a whole, many of the age old gender imbalances are just as common here as they are else where in the world. Violence, unemployment and drug abuse is on the rise amongst young Maori men and it is women and children who suffer because of it. Women are still not receiving equal pay and can be subject to sexual discrimination. However, waiting in the wings is the next generation of women who, as Helen Clark says, "Can aspire to anything they want to do."

Produced by ABC Australia