Auckland, New Zealand – Numbers speak volumes, and in the Pacific, they tell a concerning story: less than 7 percent of parliamentarians are women.

Serving as the impetus for further collective action, women leaders from parliaments across the Pacific have convened on Auckland for the Pacific Women in Power Forum.

The three-day forum – supported by the people of New Zealand, Australia and Japan – sees women members of parliaments as well as parliamentary officials coming together to discuss opportunities for improving women’s representation, approaches to improving inclusivity, and the effectiveness of parliaments in tackling gender inequality.  

The forum will discuss the many challenges women in politics face, including persistent online harassment fueled by the anonymity of social media; abuse that unfortunately dominates the daily lives of many women MPs worldwide.

Despite women's representation in politics still languishing as the worst in any region across the world – and progress sitting somewhere between stalled and gradual – a shift in attitudes across the Pacific is demanding change.

As noted, fewer than seven percent of Pacific politicians are women, compared to 27 percent globally. For a nation such as Tuvalu, its recent general election saw no women elected to parliament. And in Fiji, the country’s most-recent election saw just six women win seats in the house, a 10 percent decrease in representation when compared to the country’s previous parliament.

However, there are some bright spots across the Pacific. In Nauru, two of the 19 seats in parliament are held by women, and in the Republic of the Marshall Islands Hilda Heine was recently sworn in as President.

In Vanuatu, Gloria Julia King became the country’s first women elected to parliament in almost 14 years, and in Papua New Guinea Francesca Semoso recently joined Rufina Peter and Kessy Sawang bolstering women’s representation to the highest levels since the parliament of 2012.