Should women have reserved seats in parliament?

WHILE we analyse what had gone wrong in the 2017 general election for women candidates, there looks to be some hope for the 2022 parliament.
Prime Minister Peter O’Neill last week told a breakfast meeting with the business community in Port Moresby that he wants to bring back for debate the proposal to reserve 22 seats in parliament for women.
It would have been different had the Equality and Participation Bill (or the Women’s Bill, as it is widely known) had been passed in 2012 for the 22 reserved seats for women.
The Bill passed through two readings, but during the third reading meant to operationalise it, several MPs voted against.
That bill would have changed the political landscape and given women their rightful place in society.
The prime minister is disappointed that there is no woman in this parliament.
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 the women themselves.
He gave the assurance that the proposal for reserve seats will be discussed with coalition partners and Opposition MPs before it could be re-tabled in parliament.
While the debates continue on having women representative in parliament, those concerned should start asking themselves if women should be getting women into parliament on gender equality and participation or should it be on good leadership.
A lot of people will have their own views on how to get a woman into parliament.
Dr Fiona Hukula, the programme leader of the Building Safer Communities at the PNG National Research Institute, made a presentation after the election at the 2017 PNG Update. She said that a lot of 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 can sell their cocoa and coffee and access healthcare. For others, it may mean access to clean water and sanitation.
For some it may mean four-lane highways and a mall.
This one word can trigger discussions about all kinds of things and the ways that we imagine development and our future to be.
So, when we talk about getting women into parliament, are we using the right language when addressing different audiences?
Dr Hukula says getting women into parliament is not only about discussing these issues in forums such as the PNG Update, but in her view it is also about trying our best to understand the ways in which our people think about gender.
This is something the government and the development partners must 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 of creating a level playing field for women in Papua New Guinea politics.