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Women have been a vital part of history and culture in the geographic area known today as
Oceania Oceania ( , ) is a region, geographical region including Australasia, Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia. Outside of the English-speaking world, Oceania is generally considered a continent, while Mainland Australia is regarded as its co ...
. Women in Oceania have diverse cultural identities which relate to the geography of the continent and the social structures of the people living there. Their evolution, culture and history coincide with the history of Oceania itself.


History


Early women in Oceania

Women in New Zealand are the women who live in or are from the multi-cultural
society A society () is a group of individuals involved in persistent social interaction or a large social group sharing the same spatial or social territory, typically subject to the same political authority and dominant cultural expectations. ...
of
New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...
. The first female settlers in New Zealand were not from
Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...
. They were from the
Māori people Māori () are the Indigenous peoples of Oceania, indigenous Polynesians, Polynesian people of mainland New Zealand. Māori originated with settlers from East Polynesia, who arrived in New Zealand in several waves of Māori migration canoes, c ...
.


Colonization

The person credited to be the first white-skinned European woman to settle in New Zealand was Charlotte Badger (she later had a daughter known as Catherine).The first woman settler? - go-betweens
/ref> The first known Australian settlers arrived on the
Cocos islands The Cocos (Keeling) Islands (), officially the Territory of Cocos (Keeling) Islands (; ), are an Australian external territory in the Indian Ocean, comprising a small archipelago approximately midway between Australia and Sri Lanka and rel ...
in 1826.Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists
Vol. 42, No.4, Educational Foundation for Nuclear Science, Inc., April 1986, page 21 (56 pages),


Traditional roles among women in Oceania

In Timor-Leste, due to traditional roles, women are unable to inherit or own property
East Timor and face the cultural notion that women normally belong at the home.Crook, Matt
Women Learn the Political Ropes
Rights-East Timor The role of Kiribati women is described in the publication ''Kiribati, A Situation Analysis of Children, Women and Youth'' (2005) as "largely defined by her age and marital status". Prestige is inherent to the married Kiribati woman, but she is considerably under the authority of her husband. Historically, there was a strong "gendered division of labor" between women and men of
Palau Palau, officially the Republic of Palau, is an island country in the Micronesia subregion of Oceania in the western Pacific Ocean. The Republic of Palau consists of approximately 340 islands and is the western part of the Caroline Islands ...
. Tongan society who traditionally have a "high position in Tongan society" due to the country's partly matriarchal foundation but "can't own land", "subservient" to husbands in terms of "domestic affairs" and "by custom and law, must dress modestly, usually in Mother Hubbard-style dresses hemmed well below the knee". Women participate in the traditional music of Tuvalu which consists of a number of dances, including the '' fatele'' and the '' fakanau''.


Promoting equality for women in Oceania

One of the organizations that promote
empowerment Empowerment is the degree of autonomy and self-determination in people and in communities. This enables them to represent their interests in a responsible and self-determined way, acting on their own authority. It is the process of becoming strong ...
and foster
gender equality Gender equality, also known as sexual equality, gender egalitarianism, or equality of the sexes, is the state of equal ease of access to resources and opportunities regardless of gender, including economic participation and decision-making, an ...
for the women of Timor-Leste is the
United Nations Development Fund for Women The United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM, , ) was established in December 1976 originally as the Voluntary Fund for the United Nations Decade for Women in the International Women's Year. Its first director was Margaret C. Snyder. U ...
(UNIFEM). At present, the women of Indonesia are also venturing actively into the realm of national development, and working as active members of
organization An organization or organisation (English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English; American and British English spelling differences#-ise, -ize (-isation, -ization), see spelling differences) is an legal entity, entity—such as ...
s that focus and act on women's issues and concerns. The women of New Zealand have the same level of equality with men, and are conferred the same level of respect as well.New Zealand Customs & Culture
/ref> In relation to the labor force, based on data in 2006, Vanuatuan female workers comprised 49.6% of the workforce of Vanuatu. At present, women in
Guam Guam ( ; ) is an island that is an Territories of the United States, organized, unincorporated territory of the United States in the Micronesia subregion of the western Pacific Ocean. Guam's capital is Hagåtña, Guam, Hagåtña, and the most ...
- together with Guamanian men - participate in jobs that belong to the wage economy category; but there are also women - among men - who work in the agricultural sector. In March 2011,
International Women's Day International Women's Day (IWD) is celebrated on 8 March, commemorating women's fight for equality and liberation along with the women's rights movement. International Women's Day gives focus to issues such as gender equality, reproductive righ ...
was celebrated on Christmas Island for the honor of its female residents. The event was held in order to convey the theme of "what it means to be a woman living on Christmas Island".Christmas Island Celebrations - 100 women of Christmas Island for 100 years of International Women's Day
unifem.org Niuean women have "some rights" in relation to land tenure and inheritance of real property, but such rights are not "as strong" as those that belong to the men of Niue.


Education

Modern-day Fijian women have attained better access to education in recent years. Tuvaluan women have access to secondary education at Motufoua Secondary School on Vaitupu and Fetuvalu Secondary School, a day school operated by the Church of Tuvalu, on Funafuti.


Women's health in Oceania

In the
Solomon Islands Solomon Islands, also known simply as the Solomons,John Prados, ''Islands of Destiny'', Dutton Caliber, 2012, p,20 and passim is an island country consisting of six major islands and over 1000 smaller islands in Melanesia, part of Oceania, t ...
female life expectancy at birth was at 66.7 years as compared to male life expectancy at birth at 64.9 in 2007.Human Development Report 2009 – Solomon Islands
Hdrstats.undp.org. Retrieved 24 September 2010. 1990–1995 fertility rate was at 5.5 births per woman.


Sexual harassment and violence

Rape cases and sexual slavery were allegedly committed by East Timorese pro-integration militias during the September 1999 crisis in East Timor (
Timor-Leste Timor-Leste, also known as East Timor, officially the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, is a country in Southeast Asia. It comprises the eastern half of the island of Timor, the coastal exclave of Oecusse in the island's northwest, and ...
).


See also


Sovereign states in Oceania

*
Women in Australia Women in Australia refers to women's demographic and cultural presence in Australia. Australian women have contributed greatly to the country's development, in many areas. Historically, a masculine bias has dominated Australian culture. Since 1 ...
* Women and government in Australia * Women in Fiji *
Women in Indonesia The roles of women in Indonesia today are being affected by many factors, including increased modernization, globalization, improved education and advances in technology. Many Indonesian women choose to reside in cities instead of staying in t ...
* Women in Kiribati * Women in the Marshall Islands * Women in the Federated States of Micronesia *
Women in New Zealand Women in New Zealand are women who live in or are from New Zealand. Notably New Zealand was the first self-governing country in the world where women were entitled to vote. In recent times New Zealand has had many women in top leadership and g ...
*
Women's suffrage in New Zealand Women's suffrage was an important political issue in the late-nineteenth-century New Zealand. In early colonial New Zealand, as in European societies, women were excluded from any involvement in politics. Public opinion began to change in the ...
* Women in Palau * Women in Timor-Leste * Women in Tonga * Women in Tuvalu * Women in Vanuatu


Dependent territories (Australia)

* Women in Christmas Island * Women in the Cocos (Keeling) Islands


Dependent territories (New Zealand)

* Women in the Cook Islands * Women in Niue


Dependent territories (USA)

* Women in Guam * Women in Hawaii


Related topics

*
Indigenous peoples of Oceania The Indigenous people of Oceania are Aboriginal Australians, Papuans, and Austronesians (Melanesians,Including Torres Strait Islanders Micronesians, and Polynesians). These indigenous peoples have a historical continuity with pre-colonial societ ...


References


Citations


Sources

*


External links

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