I find it extremely difficult to find women who want to be on a board or on municipal councils - Kumar

Minister for Education, Premila Kumar says she finds it extremely difficult to find women who can put their hand up and say that they are available and they want to be on a board or have a place on the municipal councils.

She highlighted this at the Ministry of Education's Women In Leadership Forum at Suva Civic Centre today.

Kumar says municipal councils have always been dominated by men but the good news is that three out of eight CEOs are women and they are the CEO of Nasinu and Nausori Town Councils, Ba and Savusavu Town Councils.

Kumar says she suggests there is a need to create a site or an institution that can create a list of women who would like to be on certain boards so that it becomes easier when it come to the selection of women to be in such boards or municipal councils.

The Minister further says the percentage of women leadership in politics dropped from 22% to 17.6% in Fiji where there are currently 9 women and 42 men in the Parliament.

She says despite no legal barriers to equal representation or participation in elections, women are not equally represented in Parliament.

Kumar says she saw a huge difference in the way women were campaigning compared to the way men were campaigning.

She says individual women have overcome this obstacle with great acclaim and often to the benefit of others at large.

A survey carried out by the Education Ministry last year shows that women make up 69% of the teacher workforce but only 37% applied for a leadership role.

Kumar has also highlighted that men still dominate leadership positions in education despite attracting more women to the profession but this year, they will be looking at various activities and targeted interventions to help women gain access to an equal footing for leadership roles and gain more confidence to step forward and apply for higher positions.

She says this will be led by the Permanent Secretary.

The Minister adds she hopes to see more women in school leadership in the near future based on merit.