Feminist Philanthropist Donates $2.5M

Former CEO of Telecom New Zealand, Theresa Gattung, wants to equip women for successful careers, donating NZ $2.5 million to a centre to train women in entrepreneurship at the University of Auckland Business School.

Gattung has committed to spending the sum over ten years to drive gender equality. However, she might raise this amount once she’s seen its impact. She hopes businesses will bolster the initiative with additional support, permitting them to expand their teaching capacity.

"Providing women with an opportunity to engage with entrepreneurship - and the mindset and skills that accompany that - is one way of addressing current disparities in women's business ownership, leadership and representation in governance roles in the business world," Business School dean Professor Susan Watson told the New Zealand Herald.

With a view to narrowing disparities in business between men and women, Gattung established the Aotearoa Centre for Enterprising Women to provide practical training for women to gain skills ranging from reading a balance sheet to launching a business.

Its first undergraduate commerce course is expected to start at the beginning of 2022. They plan to branch out to offer skills-based courses for men as well as women, studying science, arts or literature.

People should broaden their perspective of business, said Watson, implying that commerce skills can open doorways to other career opportunities such as launching a social enterprise or charity.

Narrowing the Gender Gap

In the university’s Faculty of Business and Economics there remains gender discrepancies reflective of the broader societal imbalances that Gattung wishes to challenge.

Featuring on multiple occasions in Fortune’s list of most powerful women, Gattung has also made the Forbes list of the world’s 100 most powerful women.

She is a member of the National Advisory Board on the New Zealand Parliament’s bill on the Employment of Women, is the new chair of female leaders network Global Women, and runs the New Zealand part of philanthropic organisation SheEO.

Thanks to her work she has firsthand insights into the impact of investment in women entrepreneurs. Despite the support available, she said women still face more barriers than men. Since she became CEO of Telecom New Zealand in 1999, Gattung said not enough women have been offered similar opportunities.

"It's pathetic. I so want to support women doing their own thing in business, doing it their way," she told the Herald.