Shedding light the key to tackling violence against women

Transcript

Shedding light on gender inequality has been described as the key to addressing Papua New Guinea's problems of domestic violence and so-called "sorcery-related" attacks.

A lack of adequate health and education services, and meagre representation of women in political leadership, exacerbate these problems.

However, Johnny Blades reports that there are signs that attitudes towards women and gender equality are gradually changing.

Recent studies have found that in PNG around two thirds of women have experienced domestic violence and around 50 per cent are victims of sexual assaults. In many parts of PNG  there is a prevailing attitude that women are less important than men. Rose, who migrated from the Highlands to Port Moresby to find work, says that having found a good job in the capital she knows that women can foot it as equals if tribal society would only allow them the chance.

ROSE: Like in PNG, they think that men are like the head, the head of the family. Not like you white people who think that women and men are just like same. They think they are positive, everything's ok, like ladies, be in on it, when we tell you to do this and that, that's it... but I think now it's being changed.

However PNG society still accommodates the idea that sorcery exists. And most of the time it's women who cop the blame - ending up beaten, tortured or burnt on a stake. Rose says she believes in sorcery.

ROSE: And I've seen it with my own eyes. I've seen people use it. They change into dogs. (Asked if she saw someone change into a dog) Yeah, a woman. A woman changed into a dog and it was trying to eat one of the dead bodies.

Dr Nancy Sullivan, who has worked as an anthropologist in PNG for around 25 years, says advances in telecommunications have ushered in a type of enlightenment that is helping to erode backwards beliefs about women.

NANCY SULLIVAN: Those kinds of ideas, in the rural places, are so insidious they don't change overnight. But it's very healthy to look at social media in PNG today and to see how quickly people's opinions can change. People are in search of what is the right custom to take forward. They're standing in judgment now on some of these customary practices that haven't transmitted well in the modern world.

There are only three female MPs in PNG's 111-seat parliament - although that is a record high for the country. One of these is Delilah Gore, the Community Development Minister. She says there is progress in the way women are putting up their hands and demonstrating leadership.

DELILAH GORE: We are working towards seeing more women coming to parliament, and also with the big number increasing of women coming into a lot of CEO positions and in the departments and all this. It's an indication that leaderhips of women is now being reconised and we can participate equally with our male colleagues.

Delilah Gore says there could be more females in the house if they were resourced as adequately as males in election campaigns. That - like addressing sorcery beliefs and domestic violence - would seem to require overcoming the tribalism that underpins PNG society. It will be a long road.