Sex and Gender

A seat at the negotiating table: How women are building peace in Yemen
A seat at the negotiating table: How women are building peace in Yemen
As the conflict in Yemen enters its ninth year, there is renewed hope for an end to one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises. The United Nations mediated truce last year,…
Where does Australia’s new aid budget leave gender equality?
Where does Australia’s new aid budget leave gender equality?
With the region currently confronting multiple crises, from the Covid-19 pandemic to climate change, Australia’s new aid budget, announced by the Labor government on 25 October,…
Economic diplomacy: Womenomics shifts from Tokyo to Jakarta
Economic diplomacy: Womenomics shifts from Tokyo to Jakarta
Labour pains While Japan and Indonesia have radically different population pyramids, today they face the common dilemma that how they manage these differences will have a big…
Wrong balance of power in Pacific
Wrong balance of power in Pacific
With the attention largely on the great power race to gain influence in the region, another balance of power is going unnoticed, if not ignored – the gender imbalance of political…
US abortion bans unleash state-sanctioned violence against women
US abortion bans unleash state-sanctioned violence against women
The US Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe vs Wade has unleashed a frenzy of misogynistic lawmaking, with abortion bans now enacted or soon to be enacted in more than half US…
The future is female, but women in diplomacy still under-represented
The future is female, but women in diplomacy still under-represented
Gains for women in diplomacy in recent years indicate we have much to celebrate. Yet, with increasing pressures on diplomats operating in a complex (post-)Covid global environment…
Gender equality in the Pacific: less talk and more action
Gender equality in the Pacific: less talk and more action
Last year, Hilda Heine, former president of the Marshall Islands, congratulated Fiame Naomi Mata’afa on her election as Prime Minister of Samoa. Heine noted that Fiame Mata’afa’s…
Penny Wong dives deep into the audacity of the Oceanic Pacific
Penny Wong dives deep into the audacity of the Oceanic Pacific
From the 1990s to the early 2000s, Oceanic writer and poet ‘Epeli Hau’ofa wrote of challenging the way the world (and even people of Oceania) often viewed Oceania with…
India’s inconsistent adherence to the Women, Peace and Security agenda
India’s inconsistent adherence to the Women, Peace and Security agenda
The coup in Myanmar, a Taliban takeover in Afghanistan, and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, all occurring in the last 18 months, have each underscored that women bear a…
Where are the women? The challenge facing the next PNG parliament
Where are the women? The challenge facing the next PNG parliament
Papua New Guinea is about to issue the writs for its national elections to formally start a campaign that will culminate with two weeks of voting from 9–22 July. Historically,…