Women in Vanuatu

A portrait of a young Vanuatuan woman, September 2012.

A portrait of an old woman from Vanuatu, September 2012.

Women in Vanuatu are women who live in or are from Vanuatu. In relation to the labor force, based on data in 2006, Vanuatuan women workers comprised 49.6% of the workforce of Vanuatu.

According to UN Women, women in Vanuatu play a significant role in the fields of "civil service and the public sector". Under the 30-year-long democracy of Vanuatu, the women of Vanuatu are under-represented in the political arena of Vanuatu. At any one time, there have been a maximum of two women members out of a total of fifty-two members of the parliament of Vanuatu. There were 3.8% of women in Vanuatu who held seats in said parliament. They are also under-represented at the local (provincial and municipal) levels of politics.

Despite of being under-represented in politics and of making a living in a "male dominated and largely patriarchal society", the World Bank reported in April 2009 that Vanuatuan women are increasingly becoming involved in "private sector development and in the market economy".

See also

• Demographics of Vanuatu
• Culture of Vanuatu

External links

• UN Women Today in Vanuatu, Vanuatu Daily Post