Six eminent panelists, including Lynda Tabuya, Minister for Women, Children, and Social Protection, addressed the First Parliament Speaker’s Debate this evening on the topic of “Women’s Public Leadership: Empowering Women’s Participation at All Levels of Decision Making.”

Minister Tabuya brought up the alarming data from the UN SDG Indicator Dashboard during her speech, which showed that women make up about 25.6% of the seats in national parliaments worldwide.

By comparison, Fiji is only 10% behind. She reiterates said that structural and cultural hurdles ingrained in our society are a major cause of the stark truth that men continue to hold most of the power in Fiji’s corridors of power.

In addition, Tabuya talked about her own experiences as a female politician, highlighting the difficulties in negotiating the male-dominated halls of power, the influence of electoral processes, the financial barriers faced by female candidates, and the prevalence of hate speech and cyber-bullying directed towards women.

In elections for local government and the parliament, she also supported temporary special measures.

In the end, she concluded that a major factor causing the gender gap in leadership positions is patriarchy.

The Minister’s perceptive comments highlighted the pressing need to remove structural obstacles that prevent gender equality in political representation and to increase women’s participation in decision-making at all levels.