One of the real issues in education in Fiji, be it formal or non-formal, is the
lack of women's representation in the various professions. Table 1-
shows the occupational distribution of the economically active population
according to the 1976 Census Report. Statistics such as these reflect
the lack of education and training opportunities offered to women within
the last fifty years. Another problem related to the education of women has to do with the
drift of young people to the urban areas. Many young women flock to our
cities in search of the good life. Many are employed as domestic help and
a few are exploited by their employers.
More generally women are struggling to cope with the consequences of
social change in a multicultural society which often lacks the necessary
mechanisms to provide help to those who most desperately need it.
Pacific women who attended the Mid-Decade Copenhagen Follow-Up
Regional meeting in Suva in October, 1980, attempted to define the
women's movement and found that, although the younger educated
women were more vocal about the discriminatory practices against
1 women in their nations, they agreed with the older traditional stalwarts
that there was a need to develop and articulate a relevant and meaningful
Pacific interpretation. The traditionalists believed that although men
have always been the accepted heads of Pacific families the special role
of women had always been recognised and honoured. In fact in many
Pacific communities women were given the high honour of heads of
tribes and kingdoms. Women first-born were as highly honoured with
titles and privileges as their men counterparts. Male and female roles
complemented each other.
This same Pacific understanding was reiterated and confirmed in July
1981, in Papeete, when Pacific programmes that could be promoted by
the South Pacific Commission and other regional agencies. Madame
Flora Devantine of French Polynesia, in emphasising the special role of
women, pointed out that women in development strived to remember the
past and learn from it, and live the present as they planned forthe future.
Many Pacific women have claimed that western influences have
degraded the special status of women in the old traditional communities.
The early missionaries, for example, promoted feminine modes of
Pauline Christianity in middle class Victorian England which resulted in
women being domesticated and homebound (Schoeffel and Kikau,
1980).