Transcript
SANDRA PIERANTOZZI: Palau is a matrilineal society, we call the shots, we tell men what to do, we appoint men as chiefs to go out there, we have that power but when the chief doesn't listen to the women folk we can strip them of their chief title, but still it is a man's world so when a woman tries to get into a position for public office a lot of times people say 'what are you thinking?". In fact I just had somebody who said 'why don't you stay home and do things on your own and leave the country leadership to the men?". But then again a lot of Palauans, a lot of townspeople are educated, more enlightened and now they're saying, 'oh what a mess we have with men in governance all this time, let's get some women in there to make a difference'.
DANIELA MAOATE-COX: Why is it important to have a fair representation of women, what difference does it make?
SP: It makes a huge lot of difference. Men just have a different perspective than women. I've worked with the men in the senate and all they want to do is do big infrastructure, build bridges, but smaller things like social welfare, the good of the people, health, education, and I noticed men don't really pay much attention to these other things. I used to be minister of health and I made a lot of improvements in the area of health, our hospital got much better, and then after me there have been three men and our hospital is down in the pits. We ended up referring sick people to medical institutions outside of Palau.
DM-C: What do you think of representation of women in politics in the Pacific in general, is it improving do you think?
SP: I think so, there was a time when I was the only woman politician here so I got invited so many times to go to Fiji for women's conferences, women's empowerment and we worked together helping to train women to get up there, they were holding very high positions not only in government but also in the private sector. So women in leadership, yes we're making small gains into public leadership, but I see quite a few women doing well in private businesses and they're in leadership positions. So I believe we're making progress in terms of women in politics. Still very few but it's a start and I'm positive that in the near future we'll be seeing more and more women in politics.
