Having women in Parlt vital

POLITICAL parties have been urged to endorse more women candidates to contest the 2020 general election.
The 2017 general election was the first in 25 years (since the 1992 election), no females made the 111-member Parliament.
After the 2012 election, it was a record three females elected into Parliament – Eastern Highlands Governor Julie Soso, Delilah Gore as Sohe MP and Loujaya Kouza Lae Open and none of them made it back.
Since independence and after nine national elections (including 2017), only seven women have been elected to Parliament in PNG.
Women’s representation in Parliament has been a subject of discussion for many years.
Even the previous Government had tried to do some legislative reforms to bring more representation of women into Parliament.
But those who objected most were women themselves.
Rufina Peter, a candidate in the 2017 general election for the Central Regional seat highlighted four main challenges for female candidates in PNG:

• THE perception of many Papua New Guineans that politics is a man’s world and that women are ill-equipped to be effective political leaders;
• CURRENT political culture promotes corrupt practices – particularly significant expenditure to buy votes;
• THERE isn’t adequate financial resources and logistical support for the entire election period; and
• WOMEN face brokering support of traditional tribal leaders to secure sufficient base votes in order to be a serious contender among the male candidates.

The only way to overcome and address these challenges is for the Government and the development partners to move beyond short term interventions to implementing a well-planned and comprehensive intervention package with the overall objective to create a level playing field for women in PNG politics.
It is important for any developing nation to have women representation in Parliament as studies systematically show that female politicians are more likely to concentrate on issues that matter more to women such as day care, gender equality, reproductive rights, flex time, elderly care, children’s welfare.
Not only do women politicians take an interest in different policy issues but it has also been shown that they also govern differently.
Reforms in legislation and policies around the world have had an impact on increasing women’s participation in Parliament and in leadership roles and PNG should also do the same.
A lot of people will have their own views on how to get a women representative into Parliament.
Dr Fiona Hukula, of the National Research Institute said the debate around having women in parliament was hinged on the idea of gender equality and equal participation in the development of this country.
We use this word “development” but what does it mean to different communities? For some it means access to good roads so they could sell their cocoa and coffee and access health care.
For others, it may mean access to clean water and sanitation, for some it may mean four-lane highways and a mall.
So, when we talk about getting women into parliament, we concur with Dr Hukula that we should try to understand the ways in which our people think about gender.
This is something the Government and the development partners should take into consideration in its planning.
We need to move beyond short term interventions to implementing a well-planned and comprehensive intervention package with the overall objective to create a level playing field for women in PNG politics.