Page 28 - IB March 2018 Edition

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International Women’s Day females do far more unpaid household
work, with the end result that females do 6
“When in a country daughters are disrespected and demeaned hours per week more Total Work per week
than do males. (Narsey, Fiji Women and
tell me truly, can that country be called free?” A GIRL CHILD Men at Work and Leisure 2013) Women
(1993) and young women are under-represented
at leadership spaces, with only 7.2 per
cent of women in Pacific parliaments.
By Fiji Women’s Rights Movement been about challenging the norms and (Pacific Women in Politics, 2018)
inspiring transformative change. Recog- FWRM recognised the power of move-
FWRM’s vision is for the women of Fiji nising the leadership and capacities of ments in catalysing change, particularly
to be free from all forms of discrimination, women across all diversities, including the women’s movement who have dedi-
have equal access to opportunities, and to age groups, FWRM moved to create a cated decades of work to dismantle exist-
live in a healthy environment where the platform that empowered girls to speak. ing patriarchal and discrimintory barriers
principles of feminism, democracy, good The idea was to use more innovative ap- that hindered gender equality. FWRM
governance, multiculturalism and human proaches, like arts and sports, to encour- formed key partnerships, including the
rights prevail. age girls’ creative expression. ground-breaking and inspirational We
In line with this, a core part of FWRM’s One of the first activities was ‘Picture Rise Coalition. The Coalition is made up of
work is promoting women’s participation This,’ which involved the girls in FWRM’s Pacific feminist groups including FWRM,
and leadership in different spaces and International Women’s Day celebra- International Women’s Development
levels of decision-making. This includes tions. This became a staple for IWD and Agency (IWDA), femLINKPacific and Di-
young women and girls and recognis- to this day, girls have always been part verse Voices and Action (DIVA) for Equal-
ing that their experiences could draw of the March 8 celebrations. The con- ity . The Coalition moves to creating visi-
meaningful and significant contributions cept evolved until in 2013, when the bility for margnalised voices, by providing
to dealing with existing social issues. GROW, INSPIRE, RELATE, LEAD, SUC- enabling spaces and mobilising women
Hence, the ground-breaking and pioneer- CEED (GIRLS) Theatre programme was through their networks. This was evi-
ing work with empowering girls has been launched. It involved girls in theatre arts dent during the Pacific Feminist Forum in
a popular, high-profile feature of FWRM’s and rugby, encouraging them to share November, 2016 when We Rise provided
Intergenerational Women in Leadership their stories in a positive space and chal- support to bring together over 100 women
Programme (formerly Young Women in lenge gender stereotypes. human rights defenders from across the
Leadership Programme). GIRLS became a phenomenon, creating Pacific into one space to strategise, re-en-
wonderful vibrant young leaders and in- ergise and strengthen their networks and
FWRM GIRLS spiring the formation of the GIRLS Club. amplify their messages. Recently in 2017,
In 2006, FWRM began working with GIRLS sparked a love for activism and We Rise was able to sponsor 31 partici-
girls, in response to a research, “Violence advocacy among the participants and cre- pants from Civil Society organisations and
against the Girl Child in the Pacific Islands ated an impression with parents. For this social justice groups from across the Pacif-
Region” by the Fiji Women’s Crisis Cen- reason, the GIRLS Club was created as ic to attend the 13th Triennial Conference
tre. The research highlighted the different another avenue for the GIRLS graduates of Pacific Women and Sixth Meeting of
forms of violence and discrimination girls to continue learning about advocacy, en- Pacific Ministers for Women at Novotel in
faced because of their perceived inferior gage with the Movement and help mentor Lami. The Coalition’s work in empowering
status in Pacific Island society (due to pa- the next cohort of GIRLS. and mobilising women is a key partner-
triarchal cultural norms). Girls were vul- ship in moving towards FWRM’s vision
nerable to physical emotional and sexual FWRM Movement-building for Fiji and the Pacific, to realise gender
abuse and exploitation. There would be International Women’s Day celebrates justice, freedom and equality for all.
no better voice to share these experiences the contributions of women and girls to This International Women’s Day, FWRM
than the girls themselves but this would society, although in reality, they largely go pays tribute to the women’s movement
mean challenging what society dictates, unrecognised every day. and stands in solidarity with them glob-
‘girls are seen not heard.’ The women’s Females in the labour force do less paid ally to amplify the call for justice and an
movement and feminism has always work per week on average than males, end to all forms of discrimination against
women and girls.

References:
A Girl Child. (1993). Balance, [online]
(November), p.10. Available at: http://
www.fwrm.org.fj/images/fwrm/publica-
tions/balance/pdf/1993_BalanceNovem-
ber.pdf [Accessed 13 Dec. 2017].
Pacific Women in Politics. 2018. Na-
tional Women MPS. [ONLINE] Available
at: https://www.pacwip.org/women-
mps/national-women-mps/. [Accessed
16 February 2018].

28 Islands Business, March 2018