Leadership from women is vital

THE Equality and Participation (enabling) Bill will enable the implementation of the Second National Goal and Directive Principle (NGDP) of the Constitution.
The second NGDP calls for equality and participation.
At last we have a speci­fic enabling law that will set the legal parameters of women’s participation in decision-making through parliamentary democracy.
Our political history has shown that average women political representation in parliament is 1.5%.
This is far below the required 30% specified in the Constitution.
We hope to increase this success rate to the acceptable standards of the Commonwealth nations.
Evidence of women leadership has shown that they possess the capabilities to lead at all levels of the political economy.
Women now lead firms as managers and have produced positive results for their respective organisations.
They have mastered the basic principles of governance and leadership.
We are now witnessing a new wave of women po­wer in making decisions.
This era demands wo­men’s voice in decision-making.
In world politics, donor agencies, the United Nations, World Bank and multi-national companies make it mandatory that women participation is integrated in any development programmes they support.
The support to our parliamentary democracy by international partners de­pends on whether we embrace the Equality and Participation Bill or not.
However, on the flipside of the push for women re­presentation in parliament, we will miss its core objectives if certain elite women managers hijack the whole agenda.
Women by nature do not agree on certain agendas.
A good example is the failure of the National Council of Women to rally women support nationwide.
Furthermore, women leaders are reluctant to be LLG presidents and ward councillors at the community level.
Backbiting and gossiping have destroyed accessibility of women into these institutions.
Some women are not willing to swallow their pride and stand together for the common good.
They stand more to please others than the organisations they represent. Such traits make their actions unpredictable.
Certain actions must be taken to affirm women leadership and management at all levels of the go­vernment.
A cross-sectional gender audit must be con­ducted through a government technical working group.
This research group, through random sampling, must identify “road blocks” to women’s parti­cipation in decision-ma­king from the rural communities up to the national parliament.
The recommendations from the working group should encompass the role of women both in political leadership and corporate management.
All sectors in the political economy must make it mandatory to have women leaders and managers involved in all levels of decision-making.
Only then would we have a good representation of the women through active participation in our economic progress.

John Watmelik
Rabaul