The New Zealand chief executive of global investment firm Goldman Sachs said the number of women not in paid employment is far greater than the so-called brain drain to Australia.
Andrew Barclay said about 230,000 women in the working-age population are not participating in the paid workforce. He estimates the average net emigration of working-age people to Australia in the past eight years is fewer than 20,000 a year.
Mr Barclay said tax credits for childcare is one way of helping women to return to paid work, but individual employers must also work out how to attract staff back.
