To have women accurately represented in Parliament, we need more than a quota of 10 per cent of the members or five seats. I’m serious.

The percentage of our female population as of 1st January 2025, aged between 15 and 64 is estimated to be 48.4 per cent. Their representation in Parliament should therefore be proportional to their overall percentage of our population if we are to seriously consider them in terms of equality and equal opportunities.

However, that is not going to happen unless we change our electoral system from First Past the Post (FPP) to a Proportional Representation (PR) variant, or when political parties are genuine in their commitment to women having an equal voice and playing an active, positive, leadership role in running our country by ensuring that up to 50 per cent of their candidates are women.

The colonial Westminster First Past the Post (FPP) electoral system that we and most Pacific Island nations cling to has made our region the worst in terms of female representation in parliament. Figures released by the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) based in Geneva but work in collaboration with the United Nations show that Nordic countries (Sweeden, Finland, Norway, Denmark and Iceland), all of whom use the PR system, far surpass all other world regions with more than 45% of their parliamentarians being women. (The Americas has 27 per cent, Europe (excluding Nordic countries) 24 per cent, Africa 23 per cent, Asia 19 per cent and the Pacific 13.5 per cent.)

In January 2024, of the global ranking of 224 countries by IPU, Rwanda which uses the PR electoral system sits at the top with 63.75 per cent of members in its Lower House being women. Samoa is ranked 156th along with the Democratic Republican of Congo. (New Zealand which never rose above 20 per cent under FPP now has 46 women (45.5 per cent) in its 120-member parliament under MMP and is ranked 11th along with Finland.)

To solve the problem of women's under-representation in parliament, we need to do more than just set a quota of five seats or we will become stuck with the mindset that five is the ceiling for women members. We not only need to change our electoral system from FPP to PR, but we also need to change our cultural values and attitudes toward women. Village and district politics and policy decision-making have always been the domain of men since time immemorial as men were the only ones who could become a matai. It is a patriarchal practice that our society uses to justify the subjugation of women to men’s wishes and rules. And it is only in recent times that women have been allowed to be matai and take part in village and district council deliberations or be nominated as candidates for Parliament.

Despite this, we still have a long way to go before we have a reasonable if not an equal number of women in our parliament in proportion to their percentage of our population. To become a member of parliament a woman does not only face many obstacles. she must also overcome male prejudices not only in her electorate but in her party. Very rarely do we see our male-dominated electoral districts select a woman as their candidate unless they know she has access to mounts of financial resources that they can call upon when they need help with fa’alavelave or church donations or her pedigree suggests a close link to a paramount chiefly title.

Perception based on our cultural values is that politics is the prerogative of men. Parliament where one’s oratory skills is on display and where debates become heated at times, is suited only for the strong, vocal, powerful, and power-hungry men. It is also one held by voters and reinforced by the behaviour of some of our current crop of male politicians and political leaders. This may also be the reason many voters withhold their support for women candidates. They do not believe they will succeed and voting for them is futile. There is also the belief that women are weak and emotional and tend to display too much respect for others. All these may also be the reason political parties are reluctant to choose more women candidates.

In a democracy, one votes for the candidate they think will best represent their interest. With us, it is often the head of the family or sa’o or village council who tell or order their people on who to vote for or face the consequences. Violence had broken out in the past because some voters defied those directives and voted as dictated by their conscience. It is undemocratic.

So, what is the solution?

As suggested earlier, replace the FPP electoral system with a variant of PR that most democracies with a high number of women parliamentarians have done without having to rely on a quota. As stated in an earlier column, under PR (NZ’s MMP) a voter has two votes: one for the candidate of their preference in their constituency and one for the party of their choice. A Party can still win seats in Parliament without winning a single constituency if their total vote reaches the set threshold of all votes cast.

Political parties themselves must voluntarily advocate for more women members and show that they are genuine by increasing their number of female candidates to accord with their proportion of our population. They must also push for this as a requirement by amending the Constitution and imposing a penalty on parties that do not comply as they do in countries like France.

Lastly, political parties need to work with electoral districts and villages to change their bias toward male candidates by convincing them of the leadership qualities of women.