Females do 73 percent of the unpaid household work in Fiji, compared with 27 percent by males, says a new research report.

The report titled “Beyond 33 percent: The Economic Empowerment of Fiji Women and Girls”, authored by Professor Wadan Narsey, was launched in Suva last week by the Fiji Women’s Rights Movement (FWRM).

“The largest share (46 percent) of the unpaid household work was done by the paid labour force (females 25 percent and males 20 percent) with fulltime domestic workers, commonly known as ‘housewives’ doing 39 percent,” the report said.

“Students did a significant 11 percent of unpaid household work, 7 percent by female students and 4 percent by male students.”

The report also said that for students, the gender gaps began right from the earliest years in primary and the gaps continued to grow through secondary and tertiary ages.

“Females in the labour force generally did more unpaid household work per week (29 hours) than males (12 hours a week).

Labour workload gap
“The gap was 14 hours per week for wage and salary earners and employers, while it was an extremely large 23 hours per week for ‘others’ who are more in the informal sector such as family workers, self-employed and subsistence.

“Employees, employers and self-employed clearly have the highest work burdens with females working on average 64 hours per week or 13 hours per week more than the corresponding males.”

The report added that females were still doing the bulk of the unpaid household work in the labour force.

Women in Fiji comprise just 34 percent of the labour force.

The report solidly based on official data sources such as the Fiji Bureau of Statistics, Fiji Revenue and Customs Service and Fiji National Provident Fund to generate evidence on status of women and girls in the Fijian economy and society.

Supported by the Australian government through the We Rise Coalition, the report comprehensively documents the many inequities that women and girls face in the economy in paid work (formal and informal sectors), unpaid household work and in the use of leisure time.

According to the report, females are concentrated in employment status work with extremely low average incomes, such as family work and subsistence.

The report stated females were concentrated more in occupations and industries with low average incomes.

“The female average income in 2015-2016 was $10,880 — 14 percent less than the $12,691 for males,” the report said.

Wata Shaw is a Fiji Times reporter. Republished with permission.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

Made up of present and retired police officers, former school teachers, village headmen, community leaders and representatives from the District Council of Social Services (DCOSS), 25 male advocates in Fiji have made a commitment to change themselves and their perception of women and honour their roles in society.

This was the outcome of a one-day Fiji Women’s Crisis Centre (FWCC) dialogue with male advocates from the Western Division in Lautoka on Monday.

The advocates who were part of a dialogue on engaging men to end violence against women and girls have committed themselves to be agents of change in their communities.

At the conclusion of the dialogue, the advocates made commitments to be agents of change and work towards ending violence against women and girls in their respective communities.

“When we leave this room and return to our communities, we will ensure that we get our house in order first before calling for change in the communities,” the male advocates declared.

“In our own homes, we need to bring up our boys in a manner that they learn to respect their own sisters, mothers, and other women in the community.

“We should teach our sons to respect women and girls and live with high moral standards.”

Rohit Deo is a Fiji Times reporter. Republished with permission.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

The Australian government has announced an A$170 million (F$267 million) programme for the Pacific region to strengthen gender equality initiatives over the next five years.

The commitment was revealed by Australia’s Minister for Foreign Affairs and Women Marise Payne during the high-level ministerial session at the 14th Triennial Conference of Pacific Women hosted by French Polynesia this week.

Payne said the programme reflected the importance of strengthening women’s leadership and would complement the work they were already engaged in with bilateral partners on gender and development.

“We’ll work in partnership with regional organisations and Pacific women’s funds and organisations. It’s a flexible programme designed to respond directly to partners’ needs,” she said.

“We want to build on our successes and learn from our experience. We’ll also focus on women’s rights, on safety, economic empowerment, on women’s health, including sexual and reproductive health.”

The challenges ahead for the Blue Continent included tackling the current pandemic and ensuring a sustainable future for the Pacific region, according to Payne.

“Addressing global challenges such as climate change requires us to use all of our resources and potential – that’s 100 percent of our populations,” she said.

Ensuring women’s safety
“If we ensure women’s economic security, we ensure their safety. We promote their health and wellbeing that’s not only of benefit to women and girls but to their entire communities.

“That’s one of the reasons Australia pivoted our development partnerships to better respond to the unique challenges posed by covid-19 through our partnerships for recovery strategy.”

She said they were working with Pacific partners to strengthen the region’s economic recovery, its health security and stability.

Australia has also partnered with regional stakeholders to deliver safe and effective vaccines as well as vaccine delivery.

These objectives, she said, could not be accomplished without first addressing the structural and cultural barriers that exclude and discriminate against women.

Fiji’s Minister for Women, Children and Poverty Alleviation Mereseini Vuniwaqa said the triennial conference and subsequent 7th Women’s Ministerial Meeting opening on Tuesday was an opportunity to be inspired, learn and recommit efforts towards accelerating and progress the goal of achieving gender equality through the endorsement of a bold, action-oriented, inclusive and transformative outcomes document.

“This is about reaffirming leadership, commitment along with concrete actions to prevent male violence against all women and girls before it starts,” she said.

Building back better
“It is acknowledging that, our work and efforts must address urgently the intersections between, women’s economic empowerment, unpaid care, safety, leadership, social protection and climate crisis preparedness and resilience.”

Vuniwaqa said recognising that building back better from covid-19 needed all women and girls at the centre, leading, making decisions that served the planet, addressed inequalities, and achieved equal power-sharing.

“It is also about recognising that data and statistics that adequately reflect the lived realities of all women and girls of the Pacific — gender statistics for short — are critical and indispensable tools for developing evidence-based policies, legislation and solutions to achieve gender equality and empowerment of all women and girls,” she said.

More than 1000 people participated in the conference, which ends tomorrow and delivered via a blended approach of in-person and virtual interaction given that travel restrictions are still being observed across the region due to the covid-19 pandemic.

The event was organised by the Pacific Community (SPC) with funding support provided by the Australian government and the Spotlight Initiative.

Josefa Babitu is a final-year student journalist at the University of the South Pacific (USP). He is also the current student editor for Wansolwara, USP Journalism’s student training newspaper and online publication. He a participant in the Reporting on Women’s Economic Empowerment workshop organised by the Pacific Media Assistance Scheme (PACMAS) in collaboration with the Pacific Community (SPC).

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

By Koro Vaka’uta of RNZ Pacific

A school workbook containing “harmful” messages is being circulated in Fiji’s schools, says a local activist.

Roshika Deo said her attention was drawn to the Year 8 Healthy Living Pupil’s Workbook when she was helping prepare her niece for the school year.

Deo said she was shocked at the “community expectations” that were contained in the book.

READ MORE: Top 10 facts about girls’ education in Fiji

The book said women played a “secondary role” with no decision-making power and should be “passive” to men while not being too outspoken.

It also stated girls should be “interested in [their] looks” and at 15, be married “soon”. There was an onus to take care of domestic duties and stay at home.

Deo said young children were being taught that women were sub-standard and sub-human in Fiji schools.

The human rights and feminist activist, who has done work across the region, including for Amnesty International, pointed out that research showed a prominent cause of violence against women was gender inequality and unbalanced power relations.

Harmful stereotypes
Deo said the curriculum promoted harmful stereotypes.

“It’s perpetuating and intensifying the gender inequality and this is what leads to violence against women. This is what leads to the rape culture. This is what leads to victim blaming and such things that result in women being killed.”

Boys were being told they were superior to girls.

“It leads to male entitlement. Telling boys that they are better than girls, that women and girls have to listen to them, have to adhere to them and if they don’t, you have authority to do what you need to do,” she said.

Deo has notified the Minister for Women and Children on social media about her concerns.

RNZ Pacific has sought comment from the Ministry of Education and from the Minister for Women and Children, Mereseini Vuniwaqa, but has yet to receive a response.

Earlier this month, Ms Vuniwaqa launched a National Plan to Prevent Violence against Women and Girls describing the country as being in a national crisis.

10 women died
Last year, 10 women in Fiji died due to domestic violence.

The minister told local media the prevalence of violence against women and girls in the country was among the highest in the world.

Deo welcomed a number initiatives the government had launched to address the issue but was surprised that this material had become part of the curriculum.

“It’s get a bit perplexing that if you are going to launch this and you already understand the basic tenets of crime prevention, and if that is the case why are you not already working with the Ministry of Education in terms of reviewing this curriculum because the longer we leave it in there school system, the more harm we are causing.”

Deo said it did not matter if millions of dollars of development and government funds were spent on preventing violence against women if young, impressionable minds were given the current material.

Koro Vaka’uta hosts RNZ Pacific’s Dateline Pacific. The Pacific Media Centre republishes RNZ News stories under a content sharing arrangement.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

Great strides have been taken to empower women and girls in the Asia-Pacific region since the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing adopted an ambitious global agenda to achieve gender equality twenty-five years ago. Gender parity has been achieved in primary education. Maternal mortality has been halved. Today, the region’s governments are committed to overcoming the persistent challenges of discrimination, gender-based violence and women’s unequal access to resources and decision-making.

The Asia-Pacific Ministerial Conference for the Beijing+25 Review will meet in Bangkok this week to explore how more Beijing Declaration commitments can be met to improve the lives of women and girls in the region. Asia-Pacific governments have reviewed their progress and identified three priority areas, areas where action is imperative to accelerate progress in the coming five years.

First, we must end violence against women, such a severe human rights violation which continues to hinder women’s empowerment. As many as one in two women in the region have experienced physical or sexual violence from an intimate partner in the last 12 months. Countries in the region have adopted laws and policies to prevent and respond to violence against women. This is progress on which we must build. The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in 2015 adopted the Convention against Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, and a Regional Plan of Action on the Elimination of Violence Against Women in 2018. Free legal services, hotlines and digital applications to report violence, and emergency shelters and safe spaces for survivors are increasingly common. New partnerships are underway challenging stigma and stereotypes, working directly with boys and men. However, more investment is needed to prevent violence, and to ensure all women and girls who experienced violence will have access to justice and essential services. 

Second, women’s political representation must be increased in Asia and the Pacific. Our region’s representation rates are behind the global average. Only one in five parliamentarians are women in Asia-Pacific. Despite governments committing to gender parity in decision making 25 years ago in Beijing, the region has seen the share of women in parliament grow at just 2.2 percentage points annually over the past two decades. We must therefore look to where faster progress has been made. In several countries, quotas have helped increase the number of women in parliament. These need to be further expanded and complemented with targeted, quality training and mentoring for women leaders and removing the barriers of negative norms, stigma and stereotypes of women in politics and as leaders.

Third, economic empowerment remains key. Only half the women in our region are in paid work, compared with 80 percent of men. Ours is the only region in the world where women’s labour-force participation is decreasing in the past 10 years. Two out of three working women are in the informal sector, often with no social protection and in hazardous conditions. Legislative measures to deliver equal pay and policies to ensure the recruitment, retention and promotion of women must be part of the solution, as must supporting the transition of women from informal to formal work sectors. Digital and financial inclusion measures can empower women to unleash their entrepreneurial potential and support economic growth, jobs and poverty reduction. Action has been taken in all these areas by individual countries. They can be given scale by countries working at the regional level.

Next year will mark the convergence of the 25 years of implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action and the five-year milestone of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Investments and financing for gender equality need to be fully committed and resourced to realize these ambitious targets and commitments.  Our hope is that the Asia-Pacific Ministerial Conference for the Beijing+25 Review will help provide the necessary momentum. Now is time to craft priority actions for change and accelerate the realization of human rights and opportunities for all women and men, girls and boys. Let us remain ambitious in our vision, and steadfast in our determination to achieve gender equality and women empowerment in Asia and the Pacific.

About the authors:

Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana, Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations and Executive Secretary of ESCAP.

Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations and Executive Director of UN Women.

By Pauline Mago-King

Seventeen women journalists from the Asia-Pacific region gathered in the Victorian capital of Melbourne this week to work on an empowerment strategy for reporting on gender-based violence against women.

Organised by the Canadian-based Centre for Women’s Global Leadership (CWGL), the workshop on gender-based violence against women (GBVAW) at Monash University was a key step toward ensuring better collaboration with the media.

The media plays a vital role in influencing the attitudes toward gender-based violence, especially in environments where the development of women and girls is overlooked.

“A world without violence is possible.” Image: Pauline Mago-King/PMC

Within the Asia-Pacific region, a common thread is the vulnerability of women and girls in the face of gender inequality and sociocultural norms identified by the United Nations Fund for Population Activities (UNFPA).

From Papua New Guinea to the Philippines, putting gender-based violence into context remains a challenge in terms of recognising women’s rights as human rights.

The Rutgers University-based centre has been instrumental in raising awareness of the issue through its 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence Campaign.

-Partners-

It has recognised the need for journalists in different spaces to be well informed and equipped on covering the issue.

Support needed
The centre says journalists need support when it comes to reporting challenges such as data, resources and logistics, newsroom culture, and state accountability.

Throughout the two-day workshop, journalists shared their experiences in reporting gender-based violence against women and highlighted the gaps that could be filled in their countries.

News framing of survivors was stressed as essential toward changing a culture of victim-blaming.

Women journalists themselves are vulnerable when covering stories on gender-based violence.

Although strategies on improving gender-based violence coverage are still a work in progress, the centre’s workshop provided a needed forum for Asia-Pacific journalists.

Papua New Guinean television journalist Quintina Naime found suggestions on improving reporting on gender-based violence especially helpful.

Passionate reporting
“Coming from a country with diverse cultures and where domestic violence has become a norm, I’m privileged to have met other influential female journalists who are passionate about reporting on gender-based violence issues affecting the most vulnerable in society,” she says.

“I’m encouraged that my contribution will contribute to the professional development and networking opportunities of journalists reporting on the issues. I’m privileged to have represented Papua New Guinea and PNGTV.”

Other countries represented in the consultation were Australia, Fiji, Indonesia, New Zealand, Philippines and Samoa.

The centre will continue to convene with journalists from other regions to improve reporting of gender-based violence against women and to hopefully change attitudes.

The centre has already hosted workshops in the South Asia and Middle East regions.

It is hoped that the dialogue emerging from all these workshops will help develop a tool or guideline that will assist journalists in tackling the issues.

Pauline Mago-King is a masters student at Auckland University of Technology’s Pacific Media Centre researching gender-based violence issues in Papua New Guinea. She was a participant in the gender-based violence against women workshop.

Participants at the Asia-Pacific workshop on gender-based violence against women. Image: CWGL/PMC

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

Former New Zealand prime minister Helen Clark is the new patron for the National Council of Women and she shared her stimulating thoughts and insights at the national conference in Auckland yesterday.

In an interview format with NCW chief executive Dr Gill Greer, Clark talked about violence against women, pay equity, leadership, abortion law reform, and sustainable development aid in the Asia-Pacific region.

Clark is a former administrator of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). The conference theme was He Toa Takitini – “strength in diversity”.

The Pacific Media Centre’s Del Abcede, of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF), was on hand at Mount Wellington to get some pictures.

He Toa Takitini – ‘strength in diversity’

1. “All that separates whether of race, class, creed or sex, is inhuman and must be overcome.” – Kate Sheppard. Image: Del Abcede/PMC

2. Former Prime Minister Helen Clark … keynote speaker in interview. Image: Del Abcede/PMC

3. Former PM Helen Clark being interviewed by National Council of Women chief executive Dr Gill Greer. Image: Del Abcede/PMC

4. He Toa Takitini …. “Strength in diversity”. The theme of this year’s NCW national conference. Image: De; Abcede/PMC

5. Scenes from the NCW national conference. Image: Del Abcede/PMC

6. Scenes from the NCW national conference. Image: Del Abcede/PMC

7. Scenes from the NCW national conference. Image: Del Abcede/PMC

8. Scenes from the NCW national conference. Image: Del Abcede/PMC

9. Scenes from the NCW national conference. Image: Del Abcede/PMC

10. Vira Grace Paky of UN Youth Auckland at the NCW conference. Image: Del Abcede/PMC

11. Pacific Media Centre and WILPF’s Del Abcede at the NCW conference.

12. Former PM Helen Clark at the NCW conference. Image: Del Abcede/PMC

13. Helen Clark with Ruth Coombes of WILPF at the conference. Image: Del Abcede/PMC

14. Helen Clark with the PMC’s Del Abcede at the conference.

15. A cartoon message for men – “listen!” Image: Del Abcede/PMC

16. He Toa Takitini – “Strength in diversity”. Image: Del Abcede/PMC

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

A recent Economist article (Life Expectancy in America, 4 January) notes that actuarially-calculated life expectancy in the USA has fallen for the second year in a row. This is no surprise to me; nor will it be to anyone who follows health-related news stories, or who understands the insidious effects of growing wealth inequality and ever-tightening bureaucracy around income support. We are not going to have life expectancies of ninety-plus in the 2040s, as many in the retirement-finance industry would have us believe.

To what extent is the United States turning point reflected in New Zealand? A release of life-expectancy data on 19 February indicates that life-expectancy at birth of males has increased from 79.5 to 80.0 since 2012-14, and for females from 83.2 to 83.4.

I have decided to look at New Zealand death rates by age, sex and birth cohort. What is the experience of people born in the 1950s compared to those born in the 1940s? What indications are showing for younger adults today in New Zealand; people born in the 1970s and 1980s?

Looking at older New Zealanders first, we see substantial decreases in death rates for people born in the 1920s compared to the 1910s, and again for those born in the 1930s, and the 1940s. After that we see a levelling out, with death rates declining more slowly, or no longer declining at all. This is especially true for males currently aged under 60. If we look at the numbers, men born from 1954 to 1993 show slightly higher death rates for their present ages than men born five years earlier.

Female death rates are also showing signs of levelling out.

For younger adults, female death rates remain considerably lower than male rates, reflecting traditionally risky male behaviours in early adulthood. Young male death rates, which were particularly high for men born in the 1950s and 1960s, have declined substantially. (For myself, born in the 1950s, I lost a first cousin to asthma at 21, a schoolmate in a mountaineering accident at 19, and a second-cousin at 16 of kidney failure. Each case was associated with some kinds of risk-taking.) The worry, however, is that males born after 1970 are showing, in the most recent data, rising death rates for their age.

I suspect that we are at a turning point in life expectancy in the western world, with males born in the 1970s and 1980s representing the ‘canary in the mine’. The bigger cost is likely to be meeting their healthcare needs when they are in their 50s and 60s, and not the cost of their New Zealand Superannuation benefits when they are in their 90s.

Indonesia is set to lose its first and only female constitutional justice, whose term is up next year, potentially dealing a blow to women’s rights in a country where they’re being challenged in the face of growing religious conservatism.

Maria Farida Indrati will end her second and final term in about eight months, leaving the nine-member board of justices entirely male on one of the two highest courts in the country — where cases on discrimination, domestic violence, early-age marriage and female political participation continually arise.

The constitutional court differs from the supreme court, where the top judges are all male and which determines final appeal in legal matters not deemed to be constitutional.

“The point of view I bring to the table is different from what my male colleagues present,” the 68-year-old judge told Bloomberg in an interview.

It’s not a certainty that Indrati’s replacement, who likely will be chosen by President Joko Widodo from a list of three candidates picked by a committee, will be male.

While her successor won’t be known for several months or even until after her departure, Indrati said there are several qualified women to consider. She herself was chosen by former President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono in 2008 after decades of lecturing in law at the University of Indonesia and assisting lawmakers in drafting legislation.

In Indonesia, female law students prefer a career outside the courtroom rather than in it because “women don’t like to be seen as argumentative or to debate,” said Indrati, who plans to return to teaching full time when her term finishes. Quotas aren’t the solution to increasing women’s participation in public life, including on the bench, she said.

‘Be unafraid’
“It is important that women take this role and be unafraid to take this role,” said the judge, who suffered from polio as a child and walks with a limp.

Although when she was young she aspired to be a piano teacher, Indrati listened to the advice of her father, a journalist and former teacher who had wanted to complete his unfinished law degree.

He encouraged his daughter to study to become a law professor instead, according to her official biography.

When the constitutional court in 2015 declined a judicial review to raise the decades-old minimum legal marital age for women from currently 16 years old to 18, Indrati was the only justice with a dissenting opinion.

Raising the marriage age to 18 would allow girls more of a chance to secure their futures, Indrati said. The challenge was brought by a group promoting women’s health. Activists are again appealing, seeking to have the case heard again.

Last week, Indrati cast a decisive vote in the court’s decision rejecting by 5-4 a petition by conservative academics seeking to deem extramarital and gay sex as crimes punishable by prison terms.

She has also ruled in favour of other gender and minority-related cases such as pornography and blasphemy.

More difficulties
“It’s not always the case where the existence of a female justice means the law will take the side of women,” said Indri Suparno, a commissioner at the National Commission on Violence Against Women. “But the absence will give more difficulties to women to become more progressive.”

Southeast Asia’s biggest economy is considered a model of moderate Islam.

The president, known as Jokowi, has put more women into senior roles compared with other Muslim-majority countries — a record nine of 34 cabinet ministers, the most among the world’s most populous countries.

High profile officials include Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati, Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi — a first in the country’s history — and Maritime and Fisheries Minister Susi Pudjiastuti. Rosmaya Hadi became Bank Indonesia’s only female deputy governor this year.

The country also imposes gender quotas for political party candidates put forward for public office.

In 2016, Jokowi launched the first nationwide survey on violence against women and children. However, he’s been silent on calls from human rights groups to end virginity tests for women applying to the military and the police.

Polygamy app
Worries over women’s rights have increased as attempts to hamper equality have been made more openly. A Tinder-like app, AyoPoligami, or Let’s Do Polygamy, and a seminar called “The Quickest Way of Getting Four Wives” have sparked controversy.

Indonesia allows Muslim men to take up to four wives if granted by a court and approved by the first wife.

Some 26 out of 153 countries have women as chief justices, or 17 percent, according to a World Bank report in 2016 called “Women, Business and The Law.”

Outside court
It’s possible that the challenge to the law legalising the age of marriage at 16 may be heard again while Indrati is still on the bench.

Campaigners for women’s rights say that women who marry young will miss out on what’s being called a demographic bonus by 2030 — when the numbers of working-age people are greater than the numbers of elderly — by not being able to further their educations and embark on careers.

The government wants to improve its professional workforce, but allowing women to marry at 16 means they likely will have to stay home and raise families instead of being able to participate, said Zumrotin Susilo, chairwoman of the Women’s Health Foundation, who was involved in the first appeal of the marriage law.

A Central Statistics Agency census in 2010 found 6.7 million out of 78 million women age 15 to 64 hold a bachelor’s degree, or 8.5 percent. About 500,000 women have postgraduate degrees.

“Women have to fight for the presence of female justices and build strong communications and perspective at the constitutional court,” said Suparno of the women commission.

The Jakarta Post

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz