Young women’s active representation

“AS a young woman, I want to be part of the decision-making; that something is happening for us young women too because mostly we are left out,” said Kajal Dutt, a member of the Nausori Rural Women Leaders Community Media Network (RWLCMN).

Despite a few spaces that are open to women, young women are almost invisible.

This point is reiterated in the Pacific Youth Development Framework 2014–2023 which states that among other youth groups, young women are often marginalised from mainstream development efforts.

At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in Fiji, the introductions of lockdowns and movement restrictions had impacted many of the young women in the network.

While it was done in the name of stopping community transmission of the virus, it further caused an isolating effect that has had a profound impact on young women’s personal security.

“Adapting to this...it’s quite hard [because] this is the age where we discover things and being a youth, most of us we call ourselves ‘social butterflies’,” said Mereani Mataika, a member of the Savusavu Youth Group.

“One of the main risks experienced as being a young woman is partner violence,” said Ms Mataika.

“They are often physically abused and due to the restrictions and curfew hours some of them are unable to get to the social services which includes health services or the law enforcement, the police and all so that’s one of the risks.”

Existing gendered social norms, patriarchal structures, conservative attitudes hinder women’s participation in decision-making spaces.

These result in the passing of mandates/resolutions that in no way reflect the lived realities of young women and girls.

But in recent years, there has been a shift in the overall understanding of young women’s roles in our development culture.

In 2000, the United Nations Security Council unanimously passed Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security.

This, and subsequent resolutions that make up the Women,

Peace and Security (WPS) Agenda, recognises women as agents of change.

It urges governments and stakeholders to give women a greater voice in decision-making at all levels and includes setting up the mechanisms that would allow them to participate meaningfully in these processes.

At the end of the day, it all comes back to supporting young women as leaders and seeing them as more than just caretakers and “victims” of crime.

Picture: femLINKpacific Allies, partners and network members from the Freedom Bus Tour during the DIVA for Equality Fiji’s Women Defend the Commons event.