New Zealand

The Prime Minister of the Cook Islands says more women should run for Parliament but need to get there on their own merits.

Henry Puna says he strongly encourages women to take up positions of power in Cook Islands communities.

But he says he disagrees with others about how women may get to those positions of power.

We invite you to read the full article published September 3, 2013

This week our Prime Minister will join the leaders of 15 Pacific Island countries at the 44th meeting of the Pacific Islands Forum.

The 16 all-male leaders will meet for three days in the Marshall Islands, and discuss important issues such as climate change and Fiji's progress towards democratic elections next year.

But let's hope they will also find time to discuss gender equality in the Pacific, and why it is that women in the Pacific are worse off, in many respects, than most other women in the world.

What is it about the “woman question” that drives so many pundits and politicians to despair in New Zealand? To call the all-women shortlist a “man ban” shows how clearly many of them see politics as being all about them, men.

A women’s advocacy group in Vanuatu says it’s a big step to have ministers acknowledge that women deserve to have seats set aside for them in Parliament. The Council of Ministers have agreed that there should be a right for women to have seats in Parliament made especially for them.