If the three women now in Papua New Guinea's parliament all hold their seats at the 2027 general election it would be a first for the country, Diane Zetlin, Mactil Bais and Sarah Warner wrote on the Devpolicy Blog.
Dr Diane Zetlin is an Honorary Senior Research Fellow in Philosophy at the University of Queensland. Mactil Faustina Bais is a PNG development practitioner and External Relations Specialist with Newmont, and a former chief executive of the New Ireland Provincial Administration from 2017 to 2024. Sarah Warner lectures in policy and politics at Queensland University of Technology.
Only 10 women have been elected to parliament since independence in 1975, and just three served more than one term, the authors wrote. Dame Carol Kidu served three terms, Dame Josephine Abaijah served from 1972 to 1982 and from 1997 to 2002, and Dame Nahau Rooney served two terms from 1977 to 1987.
Rufina Peter won the Central Provincial seat for the People's National Congress Party in 2022, followed by Kessy Sawang for Rai Coast Open for the People First Party. Both placed second on first preference votes and took their seats after preferences were distributed.
Francesca Rianna Semoso joined them at a 2023 by-election as member for North Bougainville Open for the Pangu Party. Three is the equal-largest number of women ever elected to the 118-member parliament, which grows by six seats to 124 at the 2027 election.
The 2012–2017 parliament also had three women members, and all lost their seats in 2017. Incumbency has long been difficult in PNG for men and women alike, the authors wrote, although the 2022 election had a much lower turnover rate of 38 per cent.
All three women have tertiary education, public sector careers and a record of campaigning, they wrote. Peter and Sawang each came third in their electorates in 2017, while Semoso served two terms in the Bougainville provincial government.
The three make up 2.5 per cent of the parliament and face obstacles in their electorates and in the house because they are women, the authors wrote. Kidu, who mentored Peter and Sawang in their campaigns, said "the atmosphere in parliament is not gender friendly".
Sawang and Semoso sit on the government benches. Sawang was made Vice Minister for International Trade and Investment before becoming Minister for Labour and Employment in July 2023, and Semoso, a former chair of the Bougainville parliament, is Assistant Speaker and on 13 March 2025 became the first woman to chair the parliament.
In her employment portfolio Sawang has set out reforms including equal pay legislation and the move from informal to formal employment, while Peter has raised gender-based violence, illicit drugs, corruption and electoral fairness, and the constitutional provisions allowing additional women to be appointed.
Voters in PNG tend to judge their representatives on service delivery, and gaps in delivery are widespread, the authors wrote. Because each of the three leads in a way that rests explicitly on being a woman, the 2027 election will also test how far PNG accepts women in political leadership, they wrote.