Female Representation Is Key: Vaurasi

Laurel Vaurasi has joined the chorus of women and organisations on the importance of gender equality and female representation across key institutions in the country.
The President of the Fiji Law Society, was addressing the Fiji Women’s Lawyers Association as they celebrated International Women’s Day on Friday at the Reserve Bank of Fiji.
Her speech was in line with this year’s theme: Balance for better, better the balance, better the world.
In attendance were prominent women from the judiciary including Justice Seini Puamau, Justice Geethani Wijesinghe, and Justice Sufia Hamza.
Ms Vaurasi outlined figures that revealed disparity of female in key decision making positions within Parliament, the Government, in law firms and within the judiciary.
She spoke on the importance for men to support and recognise gender balance and to value the contribution that women add to the society, their families and the business sectors.
Ms Vaurasi said the truth was that the bar was set at a different level for a woman to succeed which shouldn’t be the case.
She encouraged women to take on greater leadership roles to take ownership and start on an awareness of change to make the difference which starts at home.
Tribute to women
The acting Head of School of Accounting and Law, Fiji National University, Ana Rokomokoti spoke on the notion that women were to be treated with equity.
Equity being the quality of being fair and impartial and based on the principles of justice.
She called on employers, decision-makers and people in influential positions to take the courageous step and better the balance in male dominated areas.
Ms Rokomokoti also paid tribute to three women serving in senior ranks of full Lieutenants and Colonels in the Republic of Fiji Military Forces:
Colonel Litea Seruiratu, Lieutenant-Colonel Laisani Kinikini and Lieutenant-Colonel Silipa Vananalagi
She further acknowledged the late Phobe Mills, Frances Lilian Charlton, Irene Jai Narayan and Taufa Vakatale.
The rise of women
The Dean of the School of Law, University of Fiji, Shaista Shameem, who is also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, spoke of the revolutionary women’s movement of the 1960s and 1970s in Fiji.
Here, women took the radical step in their involvement in the ‘Burning the Bra’ movement which subsequently transformed into the feminist politics and radical Women’s Studies Movement of the 1980s.
“During this time Women’s Studies and Feminist Studies university programmes proliferated in many of the western countries but was embraced by the early feminists of Fiji as the intersection of race class and gender, recognising that all inequity was related and needed to be eradicated in unison,” she said.
Professor Shameem said that it was this movement that inspired her and other women like her in Fiji to delve more deeply into the academic and intellectual study of women’s issues in society.
Recently, actor Emma Watson had delivered an important speech in which she had offered the ‘He for She’ slogan as a way of realising that the situation of women in society. For example in pay disparity, in violence against them, in their under-representation in politics and public life, was men’s responsibility to eradicate as well as women’s duty.
She said that men were not free as long as women were disadvantaged.
Professor Shameem said that every person in Fiji had to develop their own personal legend, and offered the three key points of this as development of the self through the community.
The three attributes of Integrity (ethical conduct), Advocacy for the public good, and Mana (the Pacific Island word for power, prestige and effectiveness).
These three attributes were aspects of the 21st century development of freedom from harm and liberation that echoed the beliefs of the early women’s movement throughout the world.
Honouring women
In many organisations on Friday, employers also took the time to honour and thank the women for their work and contribution towards the company.
Elsewhere in the country, women and supporters took to the streets in solidarity to promote the movement, Reclaim the Night.
The march is significant in that it is the protest against violence against women. The march was the culmination of the day’s event.
Land Transport Authority
Meanwhile, the Land Transport Authority chief executive officer Samuel Simpson said they were indebted to the women staff for their dedicated service to the authority.
“We are proud that 40 per cent of the LTA workforce is made up of women and as an equal opportunities employer we look forward to the many Fijian women of talent joining us in Steering Fiji Safely and contributing to the positive development of Fiji as a nation,” Mr Simpson said.
“Our women staff are engaged at all levels within the authority, many in highly specialised roles making a valued contribution to the work of the authority.”
Edited by Ranoba Baoa
Feedback: maraia.vula@fijisun.com.fj