Gender equity needs to be prevalent in all the activities that we do, says the executive director femLINK Pacific Fiji, Fay Volatabu.
Ms Volatabu told the regional conference on Gender-Responsive Climate Policy Formulation in Suva this week that when there’s a workshop, “we have to ensure that everything at home is done before we turn up at the workshop”.
“So, when there are people coming around to get the voices of women, in most cases they don’t get the voices of women because the women are busy sending the children off to school, preparing lunch, by the time the information is gathered, voices of women are not heard,” she said.
“So gender equity ensures that that imbalance is not around.
“So, when there are workshops, when there are consultations, take into account the fact that women have to send their children off to school, women have to prepare lunch probably, and women have to be back home in time for children to come back from school.”
Ms Volatabu said “when we’re getting their voices it has to be real. They are in the room”.
“For us at femLINK, what we normally do is we start the workshop after the children go to school and it ends before the children come back from school.
“So, that is ensuring gender equity is prevalent in all the activities that we do.”
