Gendered Priorities to Move out of Poverty Findings from Fiji: Part 2

Poverty profiles presented in Fiji emphasise income, consumption and expenditure characteristics that are often associated with poverty measurement at a household level. Measurement approaches aggregated by households often obscure the gendered experience of poverty by assuming that aspects of men’s and women’s lives are common, rather than that there are dimensions that are particularly important to women or men.

This short paper reports on which dimensions of life poor women and men in Fiji considered most important for defining and measuring poverty grounded in their lived experiences and perspectives. Phase 1 of the research was qualitative and phase 2 was more quantitative, seeking to identify with greater clarity the preferences and priorities of participants over a range of dimensions of poverty.

As part of phase 2, the project team members met in Canberra in 2011 to analyse qualitative data collected during phase 1 and to compare results across research sites in six countries. They identified indicators of poverty reflecting the distinctive roles women and men play in their contributions to household wellbeing that are often not included in national-level measurements of economy and gender equality.