EIT research professor Kay Morris Matthews is among women achievers photographed for the cover of the influential New Zealand Census of Women’s Participation report published by the Human Rights Commission.

The front and back covers of the recently-launched publication feature photographs of seven high-achieving women from Hawke’s Bay.

A spokesman says that when the commission was planning the latest census, Equal Employment Opportunities Commissioner Dr Judy McGregor wanted to highlight the contribution women made in regional New Zealand.

“Often,” he said, “their work is invisible from a national perspective.”

As well as Dr Morris Matthews, the women featured are Flaxmere Primary School principal Beverley Blake, Napier Boys’ High School science teacher and basketball coach Kirsten Daly-Taylor, Ocean View Catering executive chef Donna Ransfield, Napier Mayor Barbara Arnott, Hastings Detective Constable and the Lowe Rescue Helicopter’s sole female crew member Sally Patrick and Joanna Leitch of CCS Disability Action, Hawke’s Bay.

The spokesman said the commission settled on these Hawke’s Bay women because they were an interesting selection.

“It seemed a good illustration of the ideal that the census tries to encourage, that women who can show the right skills and experience should be represented in senior and governance level at our institutions.”

Those chosen from Hawke’s Bay “showed women walking the talk”.