This short paper reflects on the experiences of 38 young, educated women in Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu. It finds that:
- Young women in Melanesia are subject to intimate forms of control. However educated and able they may be, family members continue to exert or seek to exert control over their behaviour and choices.
This short paper draws on the views shared by security guards who participated in discussion groups as part of a larger research project that explores how men interpret and respond to primary prevention messaging addressing HIV and violence against women.
This short paper draws on narratives from communities who participated in research in Fiji and Papua New Guinea. The findings suggest that strong gender norms may constrain women’s agency and their ability to be economically independent.
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.
The Autonomous Region of Bougainville introduced the Pacific’s first parliamentary reserved seats for women system in 2004. While the system guarantees a minimum level of representation for women in the Bougainville House of Representatives, concerns have been raised that the reserved seats act as a ceiling for women’s representation and prevent women from successfully contesting other seats. No women candidates contested the 33 open seats in the 2005 election. In the 2010 election, five women contested open seats.
Among the consequences of conflict over gender roles or norms, the most disempowering one is violence against women. As part of the World Bank’s qualitative study informing the World Development Report 2012: Gender Equality and Development, local researchers in Fiji and Papua New Guinea organised focus groups to elicit information about the impact of gender norms on women and men and to learn about the changes in women’s and men’s lives as these gender norms changed or persisted.
Only two women have been elected to parliament (currently made up of 15 members) in Tuvalu since independence in 1978. With some exceptions, since the 1997 Falekaupule Act the final decision-making body (the Falekaupule) on many of Tuvalu’s eight inhabited islands has been dominated by male members, namely elders, matais (heads of each clan) and chiefs.
Because national politics remains heavily island based, the design of temporary special measures becomes crucial. Options being considered are:
- Provide an additional seat for women from each of Tuvalu’s eight islands.
The women of Papua New Guinea endure some of the most extreme levels of violence in the world. They continue to be attacked with impunity despite their government’s promises of justice. The situation has been described as a humanitarian disaster yet still does not receive the broader public attention it deserves, inside or outside Papua New Guinea. It is also a significant obstacle to Papua New Guinea's development and prosperity.
This short paper identifies four central insights from a legal positive perspective into killings related to sorcery and witchcraft accusations:
- The belief in sorcery and witchcraft is a significant cause of fear and insecurity in Melanesia, as most deaths, sickness and other misfortunes are attributed to the malevolent powers of sorcerers and witches, meaning that people are always on guard against such attacks.
This short paper looks at how the terms ‘sorcery’ and ‘witchcraft’ are frequently fused or used interchangeably, and are rarely conceptually distinguished. This blurring of the two occurs not only in popular accounts in the media but is widely reproduced by NGOs, donor organisations, and government institutions. A new acronym has even been coined SRK (‘sorcery-related killing’) that perpetuates the definitional lack of clarity, since it uses one term, sorcery, to refer to both sorcery and witchcraft.
In Papua New Guinea, it is primarily through being ‘good’ wives, mothers and household managers that women become valued. This situation can leave young women and those who do not become wives and mothers with limited options for gaining respect and a voice, while potentially also constraining the opportunities for women to participate in other spheres.
This short paper looks at the example of women parliamentarians in Kiribati and Samoa to identify common characteristics of women who have been successful at being elected:
- Coming from a large and influential family provides an important ‘base vote’, willing campaign helpers, and potential financiers. Women MPs also tend to come from political families. That is, one or both of their parents, uncles or brothers have tended to have been in politics and they often act as patrons and mentors.
At the opening of the 2014 State of the Pacific Conference organised by the State, Society and Governance in Melanesia Program, Foreign Minister Julie Bishop noted the Australian Government’s commitment to expanding the Seasonal Worker Program (SWP) and the contribution that labour mobility could make to development in the Pacific. In the minister’s words, ‘some seasonal workers have earned up to $12,000 in Australia, and have been able to remit about $6,000 over a six month placement, the scheme is having flow-on benefits.
Even as the importance of women’s economic inclusion and empowerment is acknowledged and acted on, it is also known that such gains are not without risk; for increasing command over financial resources can expose women to domestic conflict and violence.