Pacific women talk: Nauru
Traditional deference to men and insecurity about their abilities hold Nauruan women back from taking on more leadership roles, says Winnie Tsitsi of the Nauru Congregational Church.
The women in Nauru can be a vocal people, but there's also the distance of culture. We tend to shy away from decision-making roles.
However, we do make a lot of decisions in the home and in the church.
There are no women ordained at the moment in the Nauru Congregational Church.
Winnie Tsitsi
There's hope that women will eventually be ordained and preach from the pulpit. But there are many barriers while women are not as willing to go forward. It's part of our culture that women are the homemakers, women are the wives - all these things - men are the breadwinners and the head of the house.
There's respect for our men: that they should be the ones to lead and we should support them. But some women are thinking they need to be on a more equal footing with the men.
There's not a strong feeling of men pushing us back. They don't mind if the women do things. But there's always the sense of accepting that women should know their place.
Women don't have the confidence to stand for election. I think they feel they don't have the education. Now women are engaging in more work. That will give them confidence.
We always tend towards compassion when it comes to making decisions. Men are more objective and that is why I think men are more in decision-making roles. We women, especially who have had children - our motherly instinct comes out. That may be a bad thing because sometimes you have to choose the lesser evil. With a woman I think that's against your conscience. However, I feel that with life now there needs to be a motherly effect on decision-making.
We can encourage women to take decision-making roles by offering these to them. The churches in Nauru give women opportunities but not enough.
Listen: Children learn in Nauru. All Pacific churches assign women to teach children and one another. Some also ordain women ministers. © Jocelyn Carlin
There needs to be an open invitation for women because sometimes they are quite shy.
Because there is a necessity and time is calling for them now, women will take more decision-making roles in Nauru. But there has to be a balance.