Apr 7 2015

Bougainville Women’s News :Public Perceptions of Women in Bougainville Leadership Survey

julie Bishop2

Public Perceptions of Women in Leadership Survey

Autonomous Region of Bougainville

“Women in the Autonomous Region of Bougainville are traditionally endowed with traditional responsibilities and powers,  And when we assess the women in their traditional positions, women have responsibilities and powers that tend to keep them where they are”

Doctor Naomi Tulaha

 Complete survey HERE

The following survey has been developed to gain an idea of the views people in Bougainville have towards women’s participation in decision making and leadership roles particularly at the local level.

The survey is an initiative of the Commonwealth Local Government Forum (CLGF) Pacific as part of a wider programme known as the Funding Leadership and Opportunities for Women (FLOW) Programme. FLOW is a four year multi-country programme funded by the Government of the Netherlands, coordinated in the Pacific by the International Women’s Development Agency (IWDA).
Results of this survey will serve as baseline statistics for the CLGF’s gender in local government program in Bougainville.CLGF would like to acknowledge the Fiji Women’s Rights Movement (FWRM) for the use of some of its questions based on the recently published 2014 Public Perceptions of Women in Leadership in Fiji report

DO BOUGAINVILLE WOMEN HAVE RESPONSIBILITIES AND POWER ?
BY JENNIFER NKUI

Women in the Autonomous Region of Bougainville are traditionally endowed with traditional responsibilities and powers, says Doctor Naomi Tulaha.And when we assess the women in their traditional positions, women have responsibilities and powers that tend to keep them where they are.


When giving her speech during the International Women’s Day celebrations at the Kuri Village resort recently, Dr. Tulaha revealed that in the traditional context, it is deemed inappropriate for women to campaign in public but women in Bougainville do not consider themselves as inferior.


She said women in Bougainville were born chiefs and were born with power and as landlords, women in Bougainville have power.


But this power according to Dr. Tulaha is being eroded by the influence of the changes that are coming into the women’s’ lives.
She then pointed out saying are we actually making women more powerful or are we actually moving them backwards?


She stressed that this is something that needs careful discussion in order to bring the women of Bougainville to a different kind of arena so they can play their roles as equal partners in parliament.