15 Jun 2012

Political instability held responsible for status drop of Fiji's women

1:04 pm on 15 June 2012

A spokesperson for the Fiji Women's Rights Movement says what she describes as the political instability of the past six years is responsible for a drop in the status of women.

Filomena Tuivanualevu, a young women's officer for the organisation, says there has been some progress for women since the 2006 coup, with a surge of females into leadership positions in civil society.

But she says Fiji's political situation has damaged the economy, resulting in reduced purchasing power and job losses for women.

"Early retirement ages that were imposed, that has meant that a lot of women have lost their jobs, a lot of women have seen paycuts, and that hinders women's progress because their economic independence is sort of removed or limited."

Filomena Tuivanualevu says there's hope that after the 2014 general election the situation for women will improve.