US GENDER EXPERT ENCOURAGE WOMEN, GET TO PARLIAMENT

A visiting expert in gender and political leadership from the United States has encouraged Solomon Islands women to get into Parliament, saying they are the kind of women that make changes.

Cathy Allen is in Honiara as part of the US Embassy’s Women’s Empowerment Speaker Series.

She is also a speaker at a Transformational Leadership Training led by the UN Women in Honiara.

In an interview with SIBC News today, Allen said women in Solomon Islands are the kind of women that make changes.

“I find the women here much more engaging and much more interested in what the public policy is around them. I see that they are well organised. I also see that they have the capacity to be able to bring people together, they listen very well, they ask extremely good questions and they are the kind of women that make changes. They do make changes, they are not radical they are reasonable and that’s what you usually need.”

Allen also said women must work in partnership with men, adding countries with more women parliamentarians have better and higher standards of living.

“You can’t women that say or we got to get rid of all the men they’re bad, no no no no, what you have to do is say as women we bring additional skills, a lot more of us, and frankly what happens when you have more women who are in parliament, countries get better faster when it comes to international investment. I mean countries make more money and they end up having a higher standard of living and I believe that that is long overdue here in the Solomons, I really do.”

SIBC News understands, Cathy Allen will be discussing the importance of women’s political leadership in Solomon Islands development at the Solomon Islands National University, tomorrow evening.