Role Models Tours Taking Gender Issues to Schools in Papua New Guinea

National Women's Day (NWD)

Growing out of discussions over the past year about the importance of role models and the lack of female ones in PNG, it was decided to focus on the promotion of Role Models as UNFPA's contribution to International and National Women's Day celebrations in March. Due to the enthusiastic response to the concept, this simple idea evolved rapidly and over a fortnight, the UNFPA Field Office facilitated a number of very successful activities, with some very exciting follow-up potential.

Six national high schools (including three in the provinces) plus two private schools were visited by teams of four women which included a departmental head, doctor, lawyers, managers, policewoman, industrial relations officer, technician, journalist, geology student, science educator, planner, welfare officer, businesswomen, language lecturer, economist, personnel manager, as well as the UNFPA National Programme Officer, Miriam Midire, who comes from a management background (In all the teams drew on 18 women).

The role models teams addressed over 900 male and female students, mostly in years 11 and 12.

Each woman spoke frankly about her career and the issues which arose during her development which were the result of her being female. Following a question time the students were asked to write down what career they would like to follow (top choices were law, medicine, accountancy and engineering) and what they saw as the major issues affecting women's development (e.g., being criticised by men, domestic violence, not being valued).

Some schools mistakenly thought that the talk was only for girls but it became apparent to both teachers and students during the discussion of issues that it was very important that boys be included and that the subject was one which they would benefit from participating in. It was a very good example of the importance of Gender issues being understood, rather than just focussing on the role of women, noting the importance of partnerships and the need for respect and understanding and the recognition of differences.

All schools were sent a copy of the UNFPA booklet, "Gender, Population and Development", before the visits and one of the teachers actually "primed" her students with information obtained from it before the team arrived.

The talks were much more than just descriptions of careers and both the audiences, including the teachers, and the speakers expressed great interest in and support for the activity. It was obviously a very heart-warming exercise for the "Role Models" themselves, who appreciated the opportunity to share their experiences and to encourage young women to follow their dreams. In turn, the students were privileged that the women were willing to share of their personal lives.

A discussion of the issues which were covered will be included in a forthcoming booklet. They included the importance of believing in one's self; of the support of parents, teachers, friends and partners; of the need to be motivated, of needing to persevere when things are tough; of learning from bad experiences, that the disbelief of others helps to "steel" one to hang in there; of gaining the respect of male colleagues, of being committed and working hard (even harder than the males); the value of reading widely; of setting priorities, of learning to cope with pressure and criticism from males; and of needing to carefully balance family, personal and professional interests.

What started out as a fairly simple idea has grown into something very exciting with much potential for further work in the area of Gender equity. In particular, it became very clear that there was a need to work closely with males, especially given the difficulties that many women experience in PNG, both those still living traditional life-styles and also those who are developing modern style careers.

From an organizational point of view this has been a fairly labour intensive exercise but a very worthwhile and appreciated one - from all points of view, including the Role Models, the teachers and students. The Role Models were very generous in the way in which they shared their personal experiences and the students were privileged to have been exposed to them - this was not simply a "women's career" exercise. This has been a very heart-warming and exciting exercise which the UNFPA Papua New Guinea office intends to build on in a number of different ways in the future.

Among planned follow-up activities to enhance gender awareness are the following :