Islands Business - Infotech: BRIDGING THE LEADERSHIP AND DIGITAL DIVIDE

Women still grappling with gender.

Lisa Williams-Lahari
At the end of her first year of study towards a Bachelor of Engineering (Communications) degree, Jeane Matenga-Pitt got a reality check on the divide between Pacific women and careers in information technology.

Opportunities, access, connectivity, leadership... Pacific women in Information Communications and Technology during their inaugural meeting in Samoa last year, timed to coincide with the annual International Women's Day on March 8.

“My grandmother said to me 'Jeane, why do you want to fix cars?'” Matenga-Pitt went on to complete a masters degree in the field and is currently chief executive of Elijah Communications media group in the Cook Islands. But the question lives on as a revealing anecdote whenever Matenga-Pitt thinks about barriers to women in ICT (information and communication technology).

It's an anecdote that may soon get its share of attention. When Pacific Islands Telecommunications Ministers meet later this month in Wellington to discuss the next steps in the Pacific Plan Digital Strategy, a key agenda item maybe how to tackle the gender issues that worsen the so-called technology and content divides-or maybe not, given two key factors.

The Pacific telecommunications industry has an entrenched history of being about phone lines and profit first, with people and user confidence lagging behind. And with the notable exception of Samoa, the industry is still a closed realm for Pacific women wanting to break into management.

Policy agenda

The latter issue of an absence of women at decision-making level is mirrored in all areas of Pacific development, none more so than politics. This absence deprives women of the high-level critical mass they need to ensure their perspectives affect a policy agenda that is still largely managed by men.

With Fiji, Samoa, Solomon Islands and possibly Tuvalu set to hold general elections this year, the recent history-making wins of women leaders in Germany, Africa and Chile are sure to be on the minds of Pacific women entering the political race and those backing them.

These victories provide a timely example, given that Solomon Islands and Tuvalu feature on a list of only eight nations across the globe with no women in parliament. The other Pacific nation on the list is the Federated States of Micronesia.

Thanks to the digital age, Pacific Islanders can be briefed on this finding and also on trends in post-conflict countries, which are now among the top 30 nations for the number of women in politics. Closer to home, an example of recognition of the value of women's participation in reconstruction and a new democracy can be seen in Bougainville where three of the 30 seats in President Joseph Kabui's autonomous government are reserved for women.

Much of the current global analysis of what it means to have more women joining the world-leaders club has followed the headline-making transitions in Germany and Africa. That shake-up in visibility and power on three continents creates a rapid ripple in the digital age and offers new models for analysing why the Pacific community renders women almost invisible in political life.

The online debate is affirming and deflating in equal measures in a region where the numbers of women in politics are so low that the Pacific held close-to-bottom ranking in a 2005 global survey.

The question posed by the former UNIFEM-Pacific director Amelia Siamomua, now in Atlanta (USA) with CARE International, was one which could more fairly be asked of all who enter the political fray: Are women in leadership making a critical difference for women? Washington-based researcher Geeta Rao Gupta said no in a recent New York Times interview, commenting that having more women leaders does not automatically bring benefits for women. While women in politics generally make decisions that favour women and children, they are often part of a minority that must follow the lead of men to maintain their place.

There is some good news. Gupta says a critical mass of women leaders gains enough confidence after a few cycles to start letting their perspective as women impact on their decisions. In the United Kingdom, where voter interest is flagging in a political system that is old, white and male-dominated, there are suggestions that having more women in parliament will interest more women voters in elections while leading to higher quality decision-making because of the diversity of experience that women bring to politics.

The question of critical mass and how to attain it has been a thorny one for development workers keen to see how far Pacific governments will move towards affirmative action to meet their promises of equality for all (the International Union of Parliamentarians notes that this would require at least 30% representation for women).

New French 'parity laws' have seen the literal face of French Pacific politics change. New Caledonia's President and Vice President are both women. The laws, which require equal representation of men and women on candidate party lists, have also had benefits for French Polynesian women in politics.

Force-fed equality has met with resistance, however, with some political parties in France choosing to pay a fine rather than comply with the parity laws.

Affirmative action

Would affirmative action help women to cross the digital divide as effectively as it seems to be helping them cross the political one? That depends on how such action can be implemented in a field led by a self-regulating industry with an image that profits from communications technology monopolies is more important than providing affordable ICT for Pacific Islanders.

The Digital Strategy sums up that debate. As one of the key background documents in the Pacific Plan's advocacy of a new regionalism, it goes some way towards soothing concerns that women and gender issues have missed the boat.

The issue of the gender divide, which means that Pacific women are disadvantaged in terms of content, confidence and access to technology-as are other 'marginalised' groups in the region-is addressed, at least rhetorically, by the 'ICT for All' promise behind the strategy. It also covers the 'ICT for development' issues that were so widely endorsed at the United Nation's global WSIS (World Summit on the Information Society) meetings.

The objectives of the Digital Strategy and the three-pillar approach to a Digital Pacific for all should reassure marginalised communities that they have not been forgotten. That is, until they reach the closing list of priority actions or contract to help guide implementation. Ending an impressive list of nine actions, gender issues are bundled into an 'everything else' basket and handed to regional agencies to 'promote widely'.

Realistically, to meet the promise of ICT access for all Pacific Islanders, gender issues should cut cross the entire list of actions.

At the Second Pacific Ministerial Meeting on Women, Pacific governments made a commitment to give more attention to women, media and ICT. Until women achieve critical mass in this forum, as they are beginning to in politics, ensuring gender issues are effectively addressed in Pacific telecommunications may involve a long, tough, wait.

Lisa Williams-Lahari is SPC Women's Communications Officer, based with the Pacific Women's Bureau in Noumea.