Shifting the Gaze on the Representation of Women in Parliament in the Pacific

Abstract

The low representation of women in Pacific Island parliaments has been a cause of much concern and little scholarly research. Representation in the independent Pacific Island countries is extremely low but the inclusion of the French overseas territories shows a much more varied picture, with French Polynesia now second only to Rwanda for the percentage of women in its parliament. The assumptions of the literature on women’s representation have been challenged by the emergence of countries in Africa and Central and Latin America at the top of the league table. As of August 2014 the only Western countries still in the top ten of the Inter Parliamentary Union' league table are Sweden and Finland. It is timely then to consider whether women’s successes in the South are attributable to similar or different factors from those tried and tested in the Western scholarship. In particular, it is relevant to ask whether there are better indicators to explain the varied pattern of women’s representation in the Pacific. This paper draws on the analysis of women’s representation in Western democracies before comparing Africa and the Pacific Island countries. This paper is part of a broader study that draws comparisons between the progress of women’s representation in Africa and the Pacific.