Fiji currently has five women in its 55-member Parliament. [PICTURE:LITIA CAVA]

Political parties hold the key to getting more women into Parliament, with the Minister for Women pointing to their control over political funding, networks and opportunities.

Minister for Women, Children and Social Protection Sashi Kiran states that women are not lacking leadership,they are being blocked by the structures that determine who gets to contest elections.

Kiran says Fiji does not have a shortage of women leaders, it t has a political system that keeps many of them from reaching Parliament.

“So challenge is not simply preparing women for politics, it’s creating these systems. And political parties hold the key. If we’re serious about increasing women’s representation, we must have an honest conversation about political parties, the gatekeepers of political opportunity.”

Kiran points out that women are already leading businesses, communities, schools, universities, government departments and families but remain largely absent from formal political power.

The Minister says political parties are the gatekeepers of that power.

She said the question was no longer whether Fiji can produce women leaders but whether political parties are willing to give them a genuine pathway into Parliament.

Women, she pointed out made up only between 16 and 24 per cent of candidates in Fiji’s last three elections.

The Minister says that is where the problem starts, when more women run, more women win.

Kiran rejects the argument that voters are unwilling to elect women, pointing to a recent Social Cohesion Index survey showing 70 percent of Fijians are willing to vote for women.

The Minister says women face structural barriers that men do not experience in the same way, including the cost of campaigning, limited political networks, caregiving responsibilities, lack of visibility and online abuse.

She says political parties must therefore be forced to change how they recruit and support candidates.

One proposal is to amend electoral law so that at least 40 per cent of every party’s candidate list is made up of women.

The Minister also wants parties that fail to meet the requirement to lose part of their public funding, while compliant parties could receive financial incentives.

She says the Electoral Commission should also have a stronger role in monitoring and enforcing the requirement.

Fiji currently has five women in its 55-member Parliament.

The Minister said the figure was unacceptable after six decades of parliamentary democracy, particularly when women make up about half of the population.

Kiran adds that the issue is not simply about putting more women in Parliament, it is about whether Fiji’s democracy is representing the people it claims to serve.