Deliberate or unconscious bias makes it difficult for women and girls to progress - Tuiketei

Prominent lawyer, Ana Tuiketei says deliberate or unconscious bias makes it difficult for women and girls to progress and understand what bias is and reducing it is a way to tackle gender parity.

She highlighted this during the Grand Pacific Hotel's International Women's Day celebration.

Tuiketei adds this year’s theme of 'Break the Bias' is for us to push for more action to close the gap on gender parity in the workplace, the mataqali or families, NGOs, Parent Teacher Associations, school bodies, sporting bodies and where women are located.

She says when women participate in decision making and when women exercise leadership they most likely bring something unique, special and of high value.

Tuiketei adds a report revealed that 90% of women and men hold some sort of bias against women which include the thinking that women will not make good leaders, women should not work, women should not be paid equal to men for the same position or same work, women’s job includes cooking at home, looking after the family and giving birth to children and women should take up their husband's name when they are married no matter what.

She adds according to the World Economic Forum, gender parity will not be achieved in our lifetime however we can make our world a bias free place.

Tuiketei also says this can be done by using inclusive language in the way you communicate, being open minded in every situation, making a commitment to a 50/50 male to female ratio in teams, management and executive leadership, making a commitment to make a workplace diverse, making the commitment to eliminate stereotypes, bias and discrimination and calling it out when you see it happening and supporting women NGOs and charities that help women and girls strive for equality.

GPH Area General Manager, Lachlan Walker says their Suva hotels have 55% of females compared to 55% of males within the group and 65% a supervisory and managerial role however there is still some work to be done with representation and in senior positions.

He says this is going to be addressed through their Journey To Tomorrow commitment which aims to drive gender and ethnicity balance across their leadership teams.