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Step-by-Step: Climbing the ‘Ladder of Freedom
and Power’ in Fiji and Papua New Guinea
PRIYA CHATTIER
IN BRIEF 2015/17
This In Brief will identify the main pathways or factors
that lead to an increased sense of power and freedom
for men and women in selected communities of Fiji
and Papua New Guinea (PNG). Fiji and PNG were
part of the World Bank’s qualitative study informing
the World Development Report 2012: Gender Equality
and Development, for which local researchers organised focus groups to systematically record the factors
that women and men in the study saw as helping to
increase their feelings of empowerment. In the broader
gender and development literature, Naila Kabeer’s
(1999, 436) conceptualisation of empowerment is
noted as the ‘expansion in people’s ability to make strategic life choices in a context where this ability was
previously denied to them’. The aim of this In Brief is
to move beyond such academic concepts and instead
explore local understandings and common terms for
power and freedom. The identified pathways presented
do not represent a complete picture, but are a starting
point to understanding local perceptions of empowerment as well as whether or not inequalities inherent in
gender norms can create different sets of opportunities
for women and men in Melanesian societies. Understanding transitions in gender norms (Chattier 2014)
is critical for making sense of why women and men
have different pathways to power and freedom.
This qualitative study comprised 132 focus
group discussions in 16 communities in PNG
and six in Fiji (see In Brief 2014/43 for regional
variations in each country and age ranges of focus
groups). A participatory tool called a ‘ladder
of power and freedom’ was used to explore the
concept of empowerment. Facilitators spent time
with participants trying to determine the power
structures and understand the characteristics of
men and women in their communities who had
differing amounts of power and freedom. Part of
the discussion also involved what factors led to
movement up and down the ladder for women and
men in their neighbourhood or village. At each
step of the fictional ladder, facilitators probed the
participants on general attitudes and behaviours,
education level, jobs and specific community
responsibilities, family and intra-household
relations, and saving and borrowing habits. While
the ladder of power and freedom provided some
indication of gendered differences in a community’s
social structure for men and women, there were
some commonalities in the characteristics at each
step and the reasons for movement up and down
the ladder. Commonalities were evident in what
defined the major characteristics at the top, middle
and bottom steps of the ladder of power and
freedom across women’s and men’s groups in Fiji
and PNG (see below).
State, Society & Governance in Melanesia
ips.cap.anu.edu.au/ssgm
Top steps
• wealthy with land, money & house • great freedom of action
• good job with a status
• self-confident and inde• happy marriage & family life
pendent
• strong leadership, social skills
• may or may not be well& networks
educated
Middle steps
• not very wealthy but with some • some freedom of action
economic assets
• has social networks
• has a stable job
• may or may not have
• happy marriage & family life
education
Bottom steps
• little freedom of action
• little or no economic assets
• voiceless & oppressed or
• jobless or insecure income
even ostacised
• marital conflict & unstable
• hoplessness with lack of
family life
self-confidence
• uneducated
Source: Adapted from World Development Report (2012).
In the male discussion groups, economic assets
and occupational status were highlighted as qualities
of men with the most power and freedom in their
communities. Men from a Fiji urban community said
a man at the top step of the ladder is well educated,
has a good job and works in government. Decisionmaking power and authority also rested on men
being wealthy and owning land, resources, and gardens. In PNG, men from North Bougainville noted
that a man is powerful, has status and great freedom
as long as he has land, cash crop plantations/gardens.
For a man to be powerful in the Wewak community
he must share wealth during feasts, ceremonies and
IN BRIEF 2015/17
•
gatherings. Similarly, men in Huon Gulf described
powerful men as leaders looking after the community; as chiefs or ‘big men’, adding they have all the
things — land, resources and money.
Much like the characteristics of men with the
most power and freedom, women also attached great
importance to education and having a job as signs of
power in the community. Female participants from
an urban community in Fiji noted that empowered
women have a university education and work in a
professional job. Similarly, a woman from Sohe in
PNG said empowered women ‘go to church, have a
university education, and are business women’. While
participants across communities in Fiji and PNG
affirmed that it was important for women to have
economic independence, there was some ambivalence around women’s domesticated role in the
home. Qualities of a good wife and mother (Chattier
2014) were also considered as desirable characteristics to be admired and respected in the community.
While men’s pathway to empowerment rested on
their economic role as providers, women’s economic
independence was not the only source of power for
women. For instance, women from rural Sigatoka in
Fiji said a woman is also powerful through her marriage to a chief, which gives her traditional status to
speak on affairs of the village, and that she is respected due to chiefly status of the husband. In order to
maintain the status on the top step of the ladder in
Manus, PNG: ‘The chief ’s wife must maintain her
position in the community — helping and serving
the people. If she does not do her part she will die
from poisoning or sorcery. The chief will not lose his
position, regardless of whether his wife makes fair/
good decisions or performs’ (Manus female, PNG).
The focus group discussions revealed that
factors shaping women’s sense of empowerment
may be different from men’s due to gendered roles
of women and men in Melanesian societies. For
men, there was a significant association between
economic wellbeing, accumulated wealth, chiefly
title and high-status jobs with greater power. While
some women are gaining power and freedom as they
become better educated and a stable job brings them
status, some continue to enjoy higher status through
their gender-ascribed domesticated roles. Embedded
The State, Society & Governance in Melanesia Program (SSGM)
in the ANU College of Asia & the Pacific is a recognised leading
centre for multidisciplinary research on contemporary Melanesia,
Timor-Leste and the wider Pacific.
in the local context, the pathways for women’s and
men’s empowerment are sensitive to what constitutes
appropriate choices for both women and men.
Women more often than men reported becoming
more empowered and gaining influence with
freedom of expression through their domestic and
public roles while men’s sense of power and freedom
were tied to their economic role as providers.
To measure empowerment in Melanesian societies, there is a need to look at social, cultural, and
economic changes affecting lives of women and
men in all their diversity. Cornwall and Edwards
(2014) note that the complex richness of women’s
experiences together with their different or hidden pathways to gaining power and freedom may
provide important insights into dimensions of
empowerment in practice. Men and women’s evaluations of their capacities to act are often gendered
and need consideration in the design of empowerment programs for women in the Pacific. Providing women with loans, business opportunities, and
means to generate income may, in effect, bring
about some short-term changes in their lives. But
the individualist perspective of contemporary
empowerment policies and programs for women
in the Pacific and a one-size-fits-all approach to
empowerment need to pay greater attention to the
sociocultural backdrop of Melanesian societies.
Author Notes
Priya Chattier is a research fellow with SSGM.
References
Andrew, M. 2013. Gender and Economic Choice in
Papua New Guinea.Unpublished report, World Bank.
Chattier, P. 2014. Gender Norms in Transition: Conversations on Ideal Images with Women and Men in Fiji.
SSGM In Brief 2014/30.
Cornwall, A. and Edwards, J. 2014. Feminisms, Empowerment and Development: Changing Women’s Lives.
London: Zed Books.
Kabeer, N. 1999. Resources, Agency and Achievements:
Reflections on the Measurement of Women’s Empowerment. Development and Change 30: 435–64.
World Bank 2012. World Development Report 2012: Gender
Equality and Development. Washington DC: World Bank.
E [email protected]
@anussgm
ips.cap.anu.edu.au/ssgm
We acknowledge the Australian Government’s
support for the production of In Brief.
2 views expressed in this paper are those of the author/s and do not necessarily reflect those
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Society
& Governance
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of the ANU
or the Australian
Government. in Melanesia
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