Priya Chattier

SSGM Pacific Research Fellow

Email: priya.chattier@anu.edu.au

Gender Norms in Transition: Conversations on Ideal Images with

Women & Men in Fiji Islands1

18-19 June

2014 State of

the Pacific

Conference

Are Gender Norms Changing?

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“We let our daughters go to school and let them get good jobs. The moment they will be independent from men in thinking and earning, they will have very good lives.”

- Rural Indian Adult Female

“There is no such thing as equality between men and women in this community- A man is always above the woman even though women just started entering work. Man is still in control.”

- Urban iTaukei Adult Male

Main argument of my paper

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Whether or not gender norms and gender roles are changing in Fiji? And if they are changing what are the shifts in gender relations? And whether these reconfigurations represent ‘crisis of masculinity’ or women’s pathway to empowerment?

Source: personal album

Background to the World Bank Study

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Between June 2010 and February 2011, World Bank (WB) contracted 20 countries, including Fiji to hear first-hand about women’s and men’s perspectives on gender and economic choices.

The purpose of this qualitative work was to explore:

-women's and men's subjective views of and experiences with making key economic decisions; and

- Whether gender norms that surround these choices may be shifting or as the economy changes.

2012 World Development Report: Gender Equality & Development

A Bit about the Communities

A - inner suburbs of main city centre. B - a rural Fijian settlement located

close to hotel industry. C- located near Fiji’s old capital & is

the home of Fiji's largest fish cannery. D- peri urban Indian community, 2nd

largest city & is export processing zone of Fiji.

E- remote rural Indian community with limited access to facilities & services.

F- remote rural Indian community located where expiry of land leases brought a downturn in people’s economic prosperity.

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Community Name Location Ethnicity Economy

1. Community A Urban Fijian Strong

2. Community B Rural Fijian Strong

3. Community C Urban Fijian Strong

4. Community D Urban Indian Strong

5. Community E Rural Indian Weak

6. Community F Rural Indian Weak

Table 1: Sample Communities

Location of the Research Communities

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Research Methods & Tools:

Key informant interview in the form of a community questionnaire

Three structured focus group discussions with male and female adolescents, young adults and mature adults.

In-depth interview (as mini case-studies)

Ladder of Power/Freedom most effective visual tool (but quite lengthy to get through all the probes).

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Source: personal album

Source: IWDA Gender in Pacific Wash project

Selection of Participants8

Each focus group was organised by sex and age, met separately.

Three focus groups were structured by age with 8 males & females in each age group:

1. Adolescents: 12-17 years2. Young adult: 18-24 years3. Adults: 25-60 years

Range of educational & livelihood experiences were considered in participant selection.

Purposive sampling technique used by community focal points to identify participants.

51 participants selected from each community with a total sample of 306 participants. Source: personal album

Context of Gender Relations in Fiji:

iTaukei1. Patriarchal culture based on communal values, respect for chiefs, & patrilineal ownership of land through male kinship

2. Cultural norms do not

place restrictions on

female mobility & employment

Indians1. Culturally diverse with different religious groups.

2. Patriarchal ideology - male authority in decision making & father-to-son inheritance.

3. Cultural norms on

mobility quite strong in rural

areas

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Source: personal album

Source: World Bank Norms & Agency (2013) cover

Gender Equality Outcomes:

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Significant progress with

enrolment ratios

increasing for girls at school

across ethnicities.

Female LFPR increased from 29.1 in 1990 to 39.2 in 2007,

while for males this rate actually

declined from 83.6 in 1990 to

78.8 in 2007

CEDAW (1995), PPA (1995), BPA (1995), MDGs

(2000)

Domestic Laws, i.e., No Drop

Policy, Family Law Act enacted.

Enabling Environment for Gender Equality in Fiji

1. The norms we live by:

Good Wife:

She does all the cleaning. She prepares breakfast. She works on the plantation in the morning. She prepares lunch. She goes to work on the plantation in the afternoon. She attends village/club meetings in the late afternoon. She comes back to make sure dinner is ready. She goes to bed last.

- iTaukei rural adult male group

Good Husband:

My parents expect me to be a man who can earn money to feed his family. When my wife asks me for money, I have money for her. They don’t want my wife to say that I am inferior to her and the other men in my neighbourhood.

- Indian urban young adult

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Characteristics of A Good Wife & Good Husband Across Communities

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Women’s domesticated role

Men’s

economic role

Men’s traditional role as a ‘breadwinner’

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“A good husband is a good provider of things such as food, clothes” (Urban Indian Male adult).

“A good husband is one who provides for everything in the house. He pays all the bills” (Urban Fijian Male Adult).

“A good husband is one who earns a decent income and keeps his family in good comfort. . . . He has to be a good provider and has to put in extra hours, if necessary for this purpose” (Rural Indian Male Adult).

“He should go to his work in the early morning and get money for his children” (Rural Fijian community).

Shifting Gender Roles & Relations

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New expectations &

roles of men

Equality in relationships

Women’s changing

economic roles

Source: IWDA Gender in Pacific Wash project

Women as “New Breadwinners”

Across the communities, it was noted that women were now working and had more power:

“Times have changed” and women “need not rely on their husbands” but rather “have to complement” because men “do not have well-defined means of livelihood.”

-Indian Adult Female in Urban Community

“Women have to take over some of the functions of their husbands like providing for the needs of children & making decisions because men are not gainfully employed.”

- iTaukei Adult Female in Urban Community

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Source: IWDA Gender in Pacific Wash project

Ambivalence to shifting gender roles

Many men feel their male authority is being challenged & undermined:

“Before it was clear that the woman is to keep the house and take care of the family, while the man was the breadwinner. Now the woman buys and sells crops and the man is sitting at home and takes care of the children.”

-Elderly man from a rural community

“We do understand that there are laws relating to rights of women but most of us do not take these seriously. As men, we are heads of the family. In the past, women and men did not know these laws, and women respected husbands. Now, because of these laws, women try to control their husbands, which is not good.”

- Adult Males in an urban iTaukei community

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“Sticky gets Stickier” – implications for feminist theory and practice

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Our analysis clearly shows how normative frameworks around gender are changing- albeit slowly.

However, this change is being contested: whereby backlashes are common.

Movement in one area does not always mean movement in other areas or for everyone.

Are we there yet?18