Papua New Guinea

Women’s One Day of the Year

ONCE a year the women of Papua New Guinea are engulfed in a tsunami of praise.
Suddenly they become the indispensible ingredient in the PNG family. Their achievements are beyond compare.
Leaders try to outdo each other in their fulsome praise of women. They fall over each other issuing inflated promises and undertakings supposedly designed to boost the position of women in the community.
The one day of the year is International Women’s Day when for a fleeting 24 hours, millions of women throughout the world just might escape the nightly bashings and forced sex that distinguishes their lives every other day of the year.
There is a sizeable number of Papua New Guineans who are simply fed-up with the annual political festival of lip service dedicated to PNG women.
We heartily endorse Dame Carol Kidu’s plea that men must show their support for women’s right to an equal role in PNG life.
Feminists may not want to accept the obvious, but it remains obvious despite their reservations – if men in PNG society support a cause and urge other men to accept that cause, it will rapidly become an accepted component of modern life.
Nevertheless, it is hard to void the obvious conclusion – women can be their own worst enemies.
We’re not referring to the legendary in-fighting that has from time to time distinguished organisations such as the National Council of Women. That is an unfortunate negative and one that has occurred too often.
But it is also a negative that has been seized upon by politicians and used as a weapon to beat off women’s legitimate demands.
What we are referring to is the present lack of a commanding women’s voice, a woman or group of women whose stature in the country would ensure maximum exposure for the women of PNG.
Such a person or group would provide an instant rallying point for women, and bring a welcome measure of unity to women’s aspirations.
Women’s attempts to claim the gender equality that is constitutionally theirs by right too often seem unco-ordinated, too poorly publicised and scattered to have any pronounced effect on national affairs.
This has a negative impact on women throughout PNG life.
Who are the high profile achievers among women candidates who will nominate for the coming elections?
Even well informed PNG observers of either sex would be hard-pressed to name half a dozen intending women candidates – yet there will almost certainly be more than 100 women standing for election.
And too many men will take that fact as proof there are simply not enough smart, educated women to stand for election.
Needless to say that is not the reason. Nearer to the truth would be women’s invisibility in PNG society. The big achievers do not tend to seek a high public profile.
Many of them have no public profile at all, yet they may excel in many fields if compared directly with their male counterparts.
The media also plays a role in this image of women.
Far too often we find village women dressed in traditional bilas welcoming some visiting male who is being hoisted shoulder high by male village leaders. The women are the necessary background chorus to properly welcome the dignitary.
Will he later be introduced to any of those men’s wives?
Of course not.
In any event, they’ll be preparing the feast for 200 or 300 guests.
The men wouldn’t have it any other way, and after all, it is age-old custom.
All the empty echoing political promises, worse this International Women’s Day because of the proximity of the elections, will come to absolutely nothing. That is one certainty in an uncertain world.
For PNG women have yet to present a united face to the world or to identify the four or five main goals that would revolutionise their lives.
Until they can do those things, their uncertainties about what they need will continue to distress their lives – and give many PNG men the opportunity they most need. And that is to continue their domestic power games in order to ensure that the male remains culturally, economically and spiritually superior to the female.
May God help the women of PNG.