New Zealand pronunciation of "women" vs "woman"

The most obvious giveaway of a New Zealand accent (as opposed to Australian) is pronouncing the "i" in "fish" further back, so it's almost a "u" ... for example, "fush and chups", which is not done anywhere else in the world. (in IPA, the ɪ moves almost halfway backwards to ʊ, so fish is pronounced fʊʃ instead of fɪʃ).

For the same reason a New Zealander might also move the first ɪ in women backwards to ʊ, pronouncing it wʊmɪn instead of wɪmɪn, thus barely distinguishable from the way they pronounce woman (wʊmən).

Australians and especially South Africans would notice this most, because they move their vowels the other way, saying "feesh" for "fish".

The theory that New Zealanders have lost interest in distinguishing between single and plural is ridiculous. Why would they only be doing this with one particular word? The phonetic explanation is vastly simpler and thus, according to Occam's razor, I'm sticking with it!

I am a New Zealander. The vast majority of New Zealanders pronounce "women" and "woman" differently. For a New Zealander, both vowels in "women" are schwas, but the first vowel in "woman" is a short U sound (the same sound as "good").

For a New Zealander to pronounce the two identically is due to poor education, or confusion over which form is required. For example, it may be unclear whether to speak of "Women's Lib" or "Woman's Lib". It's absolutely NOT a pronunciation issue.

Note that there's not just a single NZ accent. There are differences between urban and rural speak, and between educated and uneducated. There are additional variations in some areas of the South Island; for example, many people from the Deep South have a rhotic accent - very rare elsewhere in New Zealand.