By Sera Tikotikovatu-Sefeti
The poor representation of women in Pacific politics is again under the spotlight as Papua New Guinea, Fiji, Australia, Wallis and Futuna and American-affiliated Pacific states and territories are all expected to hold elections this year.
The Pacific has the lowest political women’s representation in the world, according to the United Nations Development Program. Access to finances to fund their campaigns is a common barrier cited by political hopefuls.
“One of the biggest challenges I personally faced when I campaigned in Congress as a woman was a lack of financial resources,” says Palau’s Vice President Uduch Sengebau Senior.
“It is expensive for women to enter into politics.”
Sengebau Senior said her campaign cost US$50K and she had to take loans to fund her run for the Palau National Congress in 2012.
Fiji’s Lenora Qereqeretabua, a member of the opposition National Federation Party in parliament, faced a similar predicament when she ran for election in 2018.
“I had to take out my savings to support my campaign, which came to a total of F$60K (US$28.3K),” she said. “At times I feel the electoral guidelines for those wanting to run as a candidate is setting us up to fail, because there are so many rules, some which can be difficult for women to achieve.”
Although representation of women in Fiji’s parliament has improved from seven in 2014 to 12 (of 51 MPs) in the last general election, elected female MPs are still subject to demeaning comments on their physical appearance in parliament.
For Marstella Jack, the first female (and former) Attorney-General of Federated States of Micronesia and a former candidate for the FSM Congress, financial pressures were compounded.
“Running as a single woman was the greatest challenge because I did not have spousal support as most candidates do,” she says.
“I spent over US$100K for the three elections combined, 2017, 2019 and 2021.”
Lawmakers, not note-takers
The lack of support for women running for election stems from traditional, customary and social views. A report co-authored by femLinkPacific recently concluded: “Many citizens in the region continue to associate politics with men and view political leadership as a masculine trait. Institutional barriers, such as electoral systems and political parties, impact the extent to which women compete in the political arena.”
“We have a strong patriarchal custom and it will take time for people to see that. I mean, in the last election I didn’t even receive any votes from my village,” Qereqeretabua says, “And I’m one of them who’s addressing their issues in parliament.”
In Pohnpei, Marstella Jack says expectations of female candidates are higher.
“I felt the public’s high expectation of me to campaign like a man, that I could go and speak in front of chiefs in their high chiefly language, which is a different dialogue level.”
Jack says as the only female cabinet member, she was always tasked with taking notes in meetings.
“During one of the campaign meetings, this man said, ‘In Pohnpei, women are not expected to lead because that would mean that they would be sitting up there looking down on the man and that is unacceptable in our culture’,” she says.
In Palau, Sengebau Senior’s experience has been quite different. “Being a woman vice president was easy on the eyes and minds of the general public in Palau because our culture recognises a strong female counterpart to all male chiefs.
“The people were overjoyed, ecstatic, and I could feel the love. It is the basic principle of gender equality that was already entrenched in Palauan culture.”
Temporary Special Measures
Last year, Samoa voted Fiame Naomi Mata’afa as its first female Prime Minister. In Samoa, only people with matai (chiefly) titles can stand for elections, and only one in ten matai are women, making Fiame’s victory doubly significant.
Specific policies to increase women’s representation in Pacific politics, such as Temporary Special Measures (TSM), have been proposed in some quarters.
At Vanuatu’s municipal level, five seats are reserved for women. The Samoan model requires at least 10% of MPS in parliament to be women, through appointment of the highest polling woman(or women) to parliament if the threshold is not met through the ballot.
Prime Minister Fiame Mata’afa says the introduction of this requirement was the work of her predecessor, Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi, who, “on his return from Rarotonga from the [Pacific Islands Forum] leaders’ meeting in 2012, where the leaders made the gender equality declaration, he took that to heart and introduced the special measure.”
The support of the former Prime Minister ensured the bill was passed after numerous discussions in Samoa’s parliament. However, varied interpretations of its application and intent last year became part of the post-election constitutional crisis.
In other parts of the Pacific, there has been a mixed response to Temporary Special Measures.
“I fully support TSM only because it is temporary,” says Qereqeretabua in Fiji.
“TSMs are absolutely necessary to support efforts in FSM to get women into Congress,” says Jack. “We have had lots of discussions on this topic, but women still do not understand it. We recently had one woman elected last year to replace her husband, who passed away. I hope and pray that she paves the way for more women to run for Congress. I think the mere effort of deciding to run is a huge step for a lot of women here.”
However, for Palau, the Vice President told Islands Business that she had discussed this with the leader of the largest women’s organisation in the country, Mechesil Belau, and she said, “No special treatment for you women, you must earn your seat.”
