More women needed in Parliament

How to encourage more women to enter parliament?
That was the challenge facing those who attended a forum last week on empowering women with a focus on encouraging more women to enter parliament.
It was the Gender and Development Division (GADD) of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in partnership with the National Council of Women (CINCW) which organized this National Consultation on Advancing Women’s Representation in Decision Making Processes: Women’s Political Empowerment, with a special focus on promoting women’s involvement in entering Parliament.
The forum was held last Thursday and Friday at the Crown Beach Resort in Arorangi from 10th to the 11th of June, 2010.
This consultation was made possible with funding from the UNIFEM Gender Equality Fund – Catalytic Grant. This project is a collaborative initiative between PIFS, SIS States, UNIFEM Pacific and UNDP Pacific Centre. The focus for this activity is on “Advancing Women’s Representation in Decision Making Processes”.
The Cook Islands Government through the Pacific Plan and various other regional and international commitments has committed to equality for women in decision-making.
There is a real need for a more coordinated and strategic approach to address the gross under-representation of women in our Parliament. This is not just a matter of women’s rights. Increased balance between the sexes in decision-making goes hand in hand with good governance as it ensures consideration of a diversity of perspectives and direct attention to issues that may otherwise be overlooked.
The opportunity costs foregone for not including women in the decision making process have been expensive, given the fact that women come with different skill sets to men, have proven business acumen and community sensitivity, and in most cases are the key caregivers within a nation, hence this expertise has been lost at the national level due to minimal representation.
The Objective of the national consultation was to discuss, identify and prioritize actions that our country needed to take in the interest of “Advancing Women’s Representation in Decision Making Processes: and specifically encouraging and ensuring more of our women enter into Parliament”.
The clear consensus (via the questionnaire and the presentations) was yes more women should be in Parliament.
There is a host of research, precedents and case studies highlighted during presentations that confirm the positive benefits increasing the numbers of women in Parliament and decision making positions have for a country.
Yet 45 years of self-government shows that we have progressed very slowly in terms of supporting more women’s participation in these areas.
Forty five years on, we only have three women in the House of Parliament, compared to a woman population of 49% (9637) to 51% men (9932) (2006 Census).
Yet according to our MDG achievements, girls are beginning to surpass boys in school achievements, our maternal mortality rate has been zero for the last 15 years, and our young girls are going to school frequently and successfully. So what is stopping our women increasing their numbers in the areas of leadership and executive guidance?
Participants at the Consultation identified a range of challenges to women’s participation, including:
- Traditional roles;
- Custom and culture;
- Lack of money to fund a campaign;
- Lack of support for women candidates from both men and women
- The nature and structures of political parties
- Anomalies and insensitive clauses in the Electoral Act
- To review political reform recommendations alongside special measure opportunities
- To work for a better representation of the electorate
- Personal and financial considerations
Proposed Immediate Actions Will Include:
Develop information pack (incl. manual for parliament work, where to access resources, campaign set up a Women in Politics booth at the college expo, etc)
Approach political parties (purpose: to put in place special measures in their parties)
Develop a media/marketing strategy for current women candidates going into 2010 general elections
Nut out some core values for women candidates to use (basic family values – e vaine au values)
Set up a mentoring group to support women candidates (to assist resource constraints and strategies for targeting voters to vote you for women candidates)
Develop a communications strategy for youth and young women voting in the 2010 general elections
Meet with Min of Education to begin dialogue on developing/introducing governance and leadership course across the curriculum (currently a course for Form 7 students via correspondence)
- Internal Affairs Media Release

Herald Issue 463 10 June
- World famous activist assisting residents
- Budget will decide if residents prosecute Government over landfill
- Forestry project sucking Mangaia dry
- Budget 2010 – fiasco or disaster?