Election Survey: Mojo Mathers (Greens)

Mojo Mathers is standing for the Greens in Christchurch East, and is number 13 on the Green Party list. Her responses, including a link to the Green combined response to most of the questions, are to be found below, while a full index of candidate responses to date is over here.

Question 1. What do you believe is currently the single biggest issue facing New Zealand women, and how would you like to address it if you are elected?
I believe that violence in the home is a huge issue facing women in NZ. It has long reaching social and mental health consequences, for the women and men involved, for children and for wider whanau members. The "Its Not Okay" campaign has been excellent in raising awareness of just how widespread an issue it is. But frontline social groups dealing with this issue remain seriously underfunded and under resouced, so this needs to be given priority. In many homes where one or both partners are violent the children are often either witnesses or victims themselves and have none to speak to about what is happening. I would like to see a program developed around the issue of violence in the home taken to schools along with more trained counselors/ social workers ( these to be attached to schools) so that children/youth are empowered to speak out and are able to access adults outside of their whanau for support and to talk things through with.

The Greens' combined response to questions 2 to 11 can be found here.

Question 11. Do you have any further comments that you wish to make about the role of women in our society? Please feel free to share your thoughts here.
As a mother of three children , including two girls ( 15 and 12) , I find the constant over sexualisation in marketing and media of women disturbing. The pressure to be attractive, to dress to expectations , be a desirable weight and so on have a huge impact on young girls growing up and can have serious consequences for self esteem and personal development.

I would like to see "traditional" womens jobs such as aged care, home care support , nursing, child care etc to be better paid and valued.