The Pacific needs women leaders

NEW YORK – As the 59th Commission on the Status of Women gets under way in New York, it provides a good opportunity to take stock on commitments made to improve outcomes for Pacific women, particularly in the area of leadership.

In 2012, the Pacific Leaders Gender Equality Declaration saw Pacific leaders committing to improve women’s leadership in the region.

Since then, there have been some gains. Women’s political representation has had a modest increase to around 6 per cent this year. Dame Meg Taylor was appointed Secretary General of the Pacific Islands Forum and Sharon Bhagwan-Rolls appointed chair of the Global Partnership for the Prevention of Armed Conflict.

Despite this, the Pacific continues to lag behind the rest of the world with some of the lowest participation rates of women in parliament.

Supporting women’s leadership in the Pacific is integral to reducing poverty, promoting economic growth and improving governance. Inequality is holding back development.

Analysis by Dollar, Fisman and Gatti of the World Bank’s Development Research Group shows female leaders are less corrupt than men.

Their research, published in 2001, showed the greater the representation of women in parliament, the lower the level of corruption.

Likewise, research by the Australian National University shows that increased women in leadership improves economic growth – approximately a one per cent increase in GDP for every five percentage point rise in women’s leadership.

This international evidence is closely aligned with public perceptions in the Pacific. A Perceptions of Women in Leadership survey of over 1200 people in Fiji showed the respondents felt women make excellent leaders due to being hardworking, honest and intelligent.

People felt increasing women’s leadership was a good thing and that having diversity in representation leads to improved decision making and a better functioning government.

Respondents indicated they perceive women political representatives as three times less likely to accept bribes than men, and three times better at managing budgets. They also indicated the belief that women leaders are seven times more likely to resolve conflict than men.

Further research in Solomon Islands on voter behaviour towards female candidates before and after the 2014 general election also suggests there is a high level of support for the idea that women should be in parliament.

However, despite this high level of support, the small number of women in parliament in the Solomon Islands (only three have ever been elected to Parliament) means people do not vote for them in sufficient numbers.

The challenge is transforming people’s desire for increased women in leadership to actual results. Barriers to women’s ability to get elected in the Pacific include a lack of campaign finance, strong gendered cultural perspectives meaning women are held to a different standard to men, and a lack of access to power brokers.

These are just some of the areas where concerted efforts to plug the gaps will help improve women’s leadership. Other areas for development could include: further leadership training; institutional strengthening; support for women who have been elected; and establishing women’s caucuses and support networks.