South Pacific contexts for gender equity scholarship and practice

South Pacific contexts for gender equity scholarship and practice

For many communities of the South Pacific, traditional customary hierarchies favour men over other genders. In rural settings, where the majority of women have little agency or voice, and where land and resources are controlled by community leaders; there can be significant barriers for development initiatives to meaningfully progress gender objectives. For this reason, the intersections between gender and other factors that determine social position are important to consider in the South Pacific context if gender equality or equity is to be sustainably progressed. In this final book chapter, I refer to the applied learnings of the book’s six case studies and synthesis chapter to reflect upon the current theoretical framings of gender mainstreaming, women’s empowerment and intersectionality. I argue that in situations where funding is limited, or gender equality is one of the funding objectives often in combination with food security and poverty alleviation objectives, gender integration as a component of a gender mainstreaming process can lead to a transformation in gender norms and stereotypes. Given strong leadership and sustained funding and commitment, transformative projects that move towards alleviating gendered power structures are achievable in the South Pacific.