Gender Inequality in the Solomon Islands: Basis for Reforms on Women’s Empowerment and Development
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: This study aims to explore the gender inequality in the Solomon Islands. Despite decades of advocacy, legislation, and international commitment, a systemic gap persists between policy reforms and women's lived realities. Deep-seated cultural traditions, institutional structures, and socio-economic systems continue to place men in positions of greater authority and privilege. This persistent marginalization and exclusion from decision-making highlight a core problem. This qualitative study employed the narrative inquiry method. Conducted in Solomon Islands, the participants of this study were six (6) men and women who experienced the phenomenon. A semi-structured interview guide was used to gather data, and narrative inquiry analysis was employed. After the data analysis, the themes that emerged are: in the political domain, Theme 1: Male-dominated decision-making, Theme 2: triple barriers: custom, capital, and conflict, and Theme 3: skewed priorities: absence and the call for structural reform. For the Economics domain, Theme 1: structural segregation: low-margin subsistence vs. high-capital wage, Theme 2: institutional exclusion: land, collateral, and the unrecorded economy, and Theme 3: the unpaid care anchor: the double shift and time poverty. For the Socio-Cultural domain, Theme 1: The primacy of subordination – customary and religious sanction, Theme 2: the enforcement mechanism, gender-based violence and public silence, and Theme 3: agents of change: from hierarchy to shared responsibility. This study is limited to women’s inequality. Future researchers may conduct similar studies using quantitative or mixed methods in other parts of the Pacific region.
Authors: Judson Gordon Koito, Daniel Zambora Bernardo, Jimmy Maming
Institution: AMA Computer University
Language: English
Subfield: Education
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
OpenAlex ID: W7106789995
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