The status of women today is changing but at a very slow pace where it has more than just evolved but has expanded as well.

This was highlighted by the Minister for Women, Children and Poverty Alleviation, Mereseini Vuniwaqa while officiating at the ‘Transformation International Fiji's 3rd Conference for Women on the Frontline’.

Vuniwaqa says women are now able to access education, better health care, hold more decision‑making power and have better economic participation opportunities.

She says the question that needs to be asked is, whether this has ended the discrimination and second class treatment of women in our communities, altogether.

Vuniwaqa says each day, the Ministry still finds news articles about women getting beaten in their homes, killed at the hands of their intimate partners, sexually exploited and limited in their opportunities based on gender stereotypes and inequality.

The Minister says all this is due to the false notion that women are inferior.

She says gender inequality is one of the most prevalent forms of social inequality and exists all over the world, with different effects in different regions.

Vuniwaqa says these differences are primarily due to cultural legacies, historical development, geographic location, and religious norms which predominate in society.

She says religion plays a pivotal role in the cultural life of different spaces and is deeply rooted in peoples' experiences and influences the socioeconomic and political direction of societies.

Vuniwaqa says ‘Women on the Frontlines’ is committed to empower, equip and mobilize Christian women through conferences, training events, outreaches and missions which projects women from a variety of streams to receive encouragement.

The Minister says women’s empowerment cannot be achieved alone as it requires sisterhood, sponsorship and mentoring.